Review: Double Cross (The Disillusionists Book 2)

Product Description

SOME SECRETS COME BACK TO HAUNT. OTHERS COME TO KILL.

Justine Jones lived her life as a fearful hypochondriac until she was lured into the web of a mysterious mastermind named Packard, who gifts her with extraordinary mental powers—dooming her to fight Midcity’s shadowy war on paranormal crime in order to find the peace she so desperately craves.

But now serial killers with unheard-of skills are terrorizing the most powerful beings in Midcity, including mastermind Packard and his oldest friend and worst enemy, Midcity’s new mayor, who has the ability to bend matter itself to his will. 

As the body count grows, Justine faces a crisis of conscience as she tests the limits of her new powers and faces an impossible choice between two flawed but brilliant men—one on a journey of redemption, the other descending into a pit of moral depravity.

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Review:
It must be said:  I seriously wanted to hurt the author at the end of this book for leaving me hanging like that!   However, I will admit the wisdom of the way it ended (to make you come back for the final installment of the trilogy!).   That said, on with the review!
 
Double Cross continues the fascinating world of ordinary people “zinging” their neuroses into other people.  Do not even think about reading this book if you haven’t read the first in the trilogy, Mind Games; there’s too much back story and you will be completely lost.
 
Justine’s main case in Double Cross is disillusioning Ez, a dream invader, who may or may not be guilty of causing people to be sleepwalking cannibals.   She also assists other disillusionists in investigating some highcap murders.  We meet a few new characters and previous characters show nice development.  
 
This book showed definite improvement over the first Disillusionist book, although the writing was still choppy and vague in places.  At times, I could tell a scene was supposed to be particularly horrifying but it felt glossed over, lacking urgency.  The same thing happened with a few other scenes, not the horrifying part, but a pivotal scene evoked the same emotions as a regular scene.  For example, several times, I was reading along and regular stuff regular stuff regular stuff (no spoilers here!) and then boom!  Major Information and I said to  myself “what?!” (reread, oh wow, that was sudden!)   A time or two and it makes for a super-fun surprising read, but it was distracting here.  I enjoyed Double Cross, indeed, I eagerly anticipate reading the final installment of the trilogy, just had to share that quibble.  
 
Sensuality:  a few brief sex scenes
 
Rating: 3.5 stars