Melanie Casey

This was my first book by Melanie Casey (oops, started at the end of the series!), and I fell in love with the characters and the way the author told the story right away. I was also a fan of the fact that it was on the gruesome side, though I didn't think it was unnecessarily thrown in like some might do, just to add the "ick" factor. It all was pertinent to the storyline and being a big thriller reader, I had no trouble with it at all, though fair warning--some might have issues with the blood and gore. This book had everything--a little romance, a nice background story on the main characters, family drama, but most of all, a page-turning main plot that had me walking around thinking about the book when I couldn't actually be reading it. That's when I know I've found an author and series I need to stick with.

I had no problem reading this as a stand alone book, but I plan to read the other books soon as I really enjoyed these characters and want to know more of their history. And I also love the author's writing and can't wait to get more of that too. If you're into thrillers and psychic mysteries (and don't mind a little gore), I can recommend this book with the whole 5 stars.… (meer)

This is the first novel in Casey's Cass Lehman series set in Adelaide's Fleurieu Pensinsula and Adelaide.

Cass Lehman is psychic, more precisely she has the ‘gift’ of retrocognition … the ability to spontaneously re-live the last minutes of a person’s life. She has spent nearly a decade as a recluse, living quietly with her mother and grandmother, both of whom have similar gifts. Now she has decided that she should be using her gift more productively: perhaps she can be of assistance to the police in homicide cases.

Ed Dyson's pregnant wife Susan disappeared without trace two years ago and since then Ed has been keeping his own case files on missing women. But it takes Cass to see a pattern that he has missed.

This novel does a good job of introducing the people who will be the main characters of this series, and, while not everything is entirely plausible to me, the storyis interesting.… (meer)

Another novel set in Adelaide! The city is recognisable and this novel clings to the reputation that strange and gruesome murders occur in this "City of Churches".

I'm not quite sure how I have missed seeing earlier novels by this author. So I really read this as a stand alone and it worked quite well. There was enough back story for me to be able to make sense of what had happened in the past, and in previous stories.

Readers are required to suspend their disbelief in paranormal powers because Cass Lehman's matrilinear line all have "powers" of a sort. Cass has apparently used hers in the past to assist the police. The experiences are draining ones for her, and sometimes occur unpredictably.

This is a fairly grisly tale, with a number of bags of body parts being found in a dump at McLaren Vale, the wine growing district south of Adelaide. The evidence begins to point strongly to one person as the perpetrator but it is still up to Cass and Ed to prove the case.

A good read, with some fine bits of suspense.… (meer)

Missing by Australian author Melanie Casey is the third in the Cass Lehman series based in Adelaide and I've been waiting for it to come out for what seems like a-g-e-s.

I easily slipped straight back into the lives of Cass and Detective Dyson and the novel can easily be read as a standalone for those new to the author.

The case Dyson was investigating piqued my interest and the dialogue between those on the case (especially Dyson's supervisor Crackers) is often laugh out loud funny. Combine this crime plot with the overarching relationship between Cass and her family (mother and grandmother) and Cass and Dyson, add a dollop of suspense and a pinch of psychic power and you have a ripping read.

Sometimes a crime series can run out of steam or lose it's original shine after a while however this is definitely not the the case here; in fact, I didn't want it to end. The characters in Missing are familiar but not predictable and just to prove it, the ending made me exclaim out loud in surprise. It's not a 'twist' in the way of a psychological thriller, just something I never saw coming and had to go back a few chapters to enjoy again.

My only gripe is that author Melanie Casey indicated in her acknowledgements at the end of Missing that she's saying goodbye to the series for a while in favour of writing something else. All I can say to that is: nnnnnnnooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. I need to know what Cass does next, so my fingers are tightly crossed she comes back to this series in the future.… (meer)