94 points/100 (4 ¾/5 stars)

I'm still recovering from the time I hurt my brain and my powers are still coming back. Cherabino is still mad at me for the psychic link I accidentally created. My job is on the line, for real this item. The Guild is investigating me, in case I might turn rogue. And there is now a cop killer I have to investigate, because he killed someone I know this time.

I fall into being Adam so easily, I just want to stay being him. This may not make sense to some. However, when I read, I desperate crave becoming the person or persons I'm reading about. There isn't much more I can say that can show how much I enjoy reading something, than to say that I can become a character with ease.

This is the book that tests Adam. It adds as much stress on as it can. Testing him. Making him want his poison of choice. At every step of this book, there is a new stressor for Adam. It is exacerbated because Cherabino is still mad at him for the Link he accidentally established. His friends, his support system is otherwise occupied and can't really help him. I'm so proud of him this book.

In Clean, the Guild was a presence, but it was mostly a background presence. Not the case in Sharp. They're actively going after Adam in this book. They're everywhere. The Guild is so big in this world, and Adam was such a big hitter before he was kicked out, that they kind of had to come after him. The Guild scares me, though. They seem to be capable of anything, can do anything, and seemingly they can basically get away with anything. I'm frightened every time they show up.

Adam's intermittent, healing powers is a big part of Sharp. I love the dynamic in this. He has used his powers and relied on them for so long, he feels their loss keenly. They're coming back, but it still frightens him that they may never come back all the way. This is just one more stress on his life right now. I don't get to see main characters who are as powerful as Adam is having to deal with the loss of their powers, even temporarily.

We also see some of what Adam did when he was on drugs. It isn't pretty. He hurt people. He still hurts them to this day with what he did. It isn't just the people close to him. I really like how Adam struggles with his past in not just Sharp, but the entire series. The fact he is so flawed is such a powerful thing.

There are two other, minor plots in this book, having to deal with Cherabino. One is that she isn't really talking to Adam, that she is upset and angry and scared at their bond. They feel like they are constantly fighting in this book, by the end I was kind of done with their sniping at each other. I'm starting to be very wary about this relationship, because of the way Cherabino acts, it isn't what Adam needs in his life. The second minor plot is Cherabino's nephew is displaying some powers and she wants his help and advice on what to do. I don't really like how Adam deals with this, though I don't know what else he could have done.

I really am enjoying this series. I'm hooked, and can't wait to read further.

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I bought books 1 and 2 quite awhile ago then forgot about them. I found Clean the other day and charged through it. It was one of the better urban fantasies I've read in a long time, so I then read this book (Sharp) which, it turned out, I liked just as much as the first book. So I went and bought the next two in the series as well.

It's an urban fantasy with a male main character who is nothing at all like Dresden (or Mike Carey's Castor for that matter) - he is troubled and challenged and doesn't necessarily know what he is doing all the time - which is why I like him so much. He isn't a super hero, even though he does have super powers of a sort. It is also a decent detective novel, with hints of noir... if the setting didn't include super natural abilities, it could actually fit within the detective/procedural genre fairly easily. ( )

Enjoyed Sharp as much or more than Clean. Poor Adam suffered even more in Sharp - he just cannot catch a break. Things turned from bad to worse to worse and worse. And then they got worse! By halfway through the story, his ability to stay clean, his dignity, his freedom, his job, his livelihood, even his life - everything was on the line.

No one seems to notice how hard Adam tries. No matter what happens, he's at fault.

The stakes continued to rise with every chapter! No one trusted him, no one but Swartz. If he lost him, he'd lose everything... [spoilers:] Adam kept losing ground, with more and more at stake, more clues to follow up, more of the mystery to uncover, with fewer answers, until he literally had a gun to his head. Cherabino was forced to use their link to get to him. Maybe now she'll start to see the good things about the link? She really needs to cut him a break![end spoilers]

And when all was settled, the author dropped something else on us, just enough that I've got to come back for more! Hope it's not to long till the next book! ( )

The second book in the series sees telepath Adam is stilling dealing with the aftermath from book one. His telepathy is wonky at a time when he needs it the most to keep his job, which along with Isabella Cherabino is keeping him clean and off the streets. But budget cuts in the police department may cost him his job. So despite his injury he “reads” a crime scene for Cherabino and finds some shocking things. His past is coming back to haunt him in very literal ways. Now to bring justice for a former student and stop the illegal Tech that once destroyed the world from getting out and finishing off the rest he must face his demons and his past.
Written in the first person from Adam’s point of view, “Sharp” like the first novel “Clean” reminds me of Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden series, if Harry had been an ex-drug addict wizard, instead of just a blacklisted one. Adam’s struggle is not always pretty, but it is honest and gives this urban fantasy novel some of its reality, along with most of Cherabino’s police work. The juxtaposition of the aftermath of technology run amok and telepathy as an accepted ability is sometimes both the most surreal parts of the book and the most frighteningly probable, at least in terms of technology. I have to say that I actually like the improbable telepathy alongside the probable of technology; it keeps the world Adam and Cherabino inhabit both fresh and yet relatable. Cherabino and Adam’s relationship has deteriorated in this book, even while parts of it have deepened (won’t say how for those who haven’t read the first book). Yet in the end Cherabino has to find a way to accept Adam’s telepathy, at least temporarily. Going forward, it will be interesting to see how Hughes works the new developments of this book into their evolving relationship and what the glimpses she gives us at the end of the book may mean for all of our characters, but particularly for Adam. ( )

If you follow my other blog, you'll know that I've really enjoyed the first couple stories in Alex Hughes' Mindspace Investigations. Her debut novel, CLEAN, was great and the follow-up e-novella, which bridges the gap between CLEAN and her newest novel, SHARP, is probably one of the best novellas I've read lately. Needless to say, I was excited to get my hands on SHARP!

Since this is the first time I'm discussing the Mindspace Investigations series here on Tynga's Reviews, though, I feel like I should give you a primer on the series, so I'm cannibalizing part of my review of CLEAN to give you a bit of context:

Alex Hughes' Mindspace Investigations are set in a dark, not-terribly-distant future in Atlanta. In the aftermath of the Tech Wars (which happened about 60 years before the series picks up), people don’t trust technology anymore so almost everything is back to the trusted pen-and-paper methodology. The only reason the world survived the Tech Wars? The Telepaths’ Guild stepped up and saved everyone, by being super scary. (So far, we don't have a lot of details but you can probably imagine how ruthless they had to be since the Tech Wars were ravaging parts of the world.) As a result, the Guild has the right to self-government but no one trusts them that much.

Adam, the main character of the series, was a shining star in the Guild until he got hooked on Satin, a fancy drug, and lost his job and got kicked out of the Guild. Now, he works for the local police department with his partner Detective Isabella Cherebino, solving crimes and working the interrogation room, trying to resist the urge to fall back into his addiction. He doesn’t have any friends from his previous life but he’s working hard to make the most of the opportunity he has, even when that means going up against the Guild. He does, however, have a mentor named Swartz, who I love, and a couple cops on his side, including Cherebino, who he's pretty much in love with, and Bellury, the officer in charge of his day-to-day activities. He's also got a champion higher up in the police force named Paulsen, who finds him extremely useful and keeps him around even though there are a lot of cops who'd be happy to see him go, and more than happy to help Adam find his way out.

In CLEAN, Adam stopped a crazy man from stealing tech from the Guild (who's not supposed to have tech), at the cost of damaging his telepathy. In PAYOFF, we saw part of his recovery but his brain still isn't 100% by the time we hit the first pages of SHARP.

There's also an e-novella that bridges CLEAN and SHARP but it's not essential reading. PAYOFF is great fun (my review here) but definitely not 100% necessary to understand what's going on in SHARP, assuming you've read CLEAN.

With all of that out of the way, I should probably start talking about SHARP, the whole reason I'm writing this post. =)

SHARP is a really solid detective story wrapped in some amazing dystopian urban fantasy paper. The police investigation is what kick starts the narrative and really propels the story to its rather epic conclusion, so it's essential for me that the mystery is strong and that I can't predict what's going to happen. And Hughes does a fantastic job of creating a strong procedural plot line. There are hints about what's to come but I was genuinely surprised by many of the turns that the murder investigation took.

On top of a tough case, Adam is forced to defend his position in the department in the face of cutbacks, which is extra challenging since his telepathy is on the fritz. Budget cuts are a very realistic and mundane threat when compared to illegal Tech but it definite adds to the tension. I really liked the juxtaposition of an everyday problem with a potentially global danger.

Another thing I appreciate about this series is that Hughes has created a fantastic world and that everything is logical within this universe. There are a bunch of different Abilities but the most common one is telepathy. As with all Abilities, people have varying degrees of power, and Adam is a very strong telepath. We get to learn a bit more about his history with the Guild, thanks to interactions with people from his past, and there are also some really great moments in the present, as he wrestles to deal with his faltering telepathy.

And, of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't say anything about Adam's very complicated relationship with Cherabino. He's in love with her but her feelings are a bit more complicated, especially because she hates the Link that inadvertently grew between the two of them from Adam's repeated use of Cherabino as an anchor while surfing through Mindspace. Their relationship kind of reminds me of Harry Dresden and Karrin Murphy in the early Dresden Files and I'm very curious to see what will happen. I don't think I want them to get romantic because I love the tension but I do hope to see the relationship continue to develop in some capacity.

If you're looking for a great series featuring strong procedural elements and a fantastic, well built urban fantasy world, you should definitely check out Alex Hughes' Mindspace Investigations. You won't be sorry!

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