SHATTERING DAWN

A photographer and podcast host realizes she has a stalker in this follow-up to The Night Island (2024).

Seven months ago, Amelia Rivers was the unwitting subject of a paranormal experiment, one that left her with the ability to read people’s auras and the energy left behind in their footprints. Unfortunately, it also left her with a crippling fear of the dark, which is when people’s auras are most powerfully visible. Amelia uses her camera to capture the ghostly auras of a person who’s been skulking around her apartment building, hoping the photos will convince private investigator Gideon Sweetwater that she has a stalker. Gideon isn’t sure Amelia is telling the truth, but he’s determined to help her since he has secret paranormal talents of his own: He can send people into trance-like comas, trapping them in their own nightmares. After disrupting an attempted kidnapping, Gideon and Amelia find clues that lead back to the Lucent Springs hotel in the California desert. Since Lucent Springs was the site of the experiment that changed Amelia’s life, she hopes to discover why she was targeted and bring the mastermind behind the procedure to justice. With Gideon’s expertise as an investigator, the two interrogate townspeople and the hotel itself in search of more clues to solve the mystery. Gideon teaches Amelia to embrace the darkness that allows her to use her powers, while she teaches him that crystals can help hone his abilities. Krentz’s worldbuilding is interesting and compelling; their inventive paranormal abilities allow Gideon and Amelia to see the world in new, interesting ways. Their romance is perfunctory and even a bit tepid, though, compared to the hunt for the murderous villain.

Another engrossing story about how people with heightened paranormal abilities experience friendship and love.