Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Watch the Show Instead

A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Read (Psych #1) by William Rabkin

Summary: After the PSYCH detective agency gets some top-notch publicity, Shawn's high-school nemesis, Dallas Steele, hires him to help choose his investments. Naturally, their predictions turn out to be total busts. And the deceptive Dallas is thrilled that he has completely discredited and humiliated Shawn once and for all--until he's found murdered.

But the police have a suspect found--at the scene with a smoking gun. And she says Shawn took control of her mind and forced her to do it. After all, he is a psychic...


Review: A novelized version of the show Psych that has a jerky main character and falls short of the enjoyment one gets from watching the show.

I can only assume it is hard to turn a tv show into a novel. The novel is going to contain more information than an hour tv can convey. For me, I usually like the characters or people best when it comes to tv shows. I like watching their interaction. You lose the non-verbal, but still highly visual aspect of the characters' interactions with each other. A perfectly timed Gibbs' head slap isn't going to have the same impact in a book. Still, for those of us like reading, novels about a tv show are a great way to experience it any time, especially when there aren't new episodes or when the show has ended. 

I like Psych. I don't watch it on a regular basis nor do I feel the need to catch up on new episodes or watch the show from the beginning (although I do have Netflix now which is tempting). It is a funny show though and I will watch it if it's own and nothing else appeals to me. I know enough about the show to know the characters. What bothered me most about this book is how much a jerk Shawn was. Gus acted like he is portrayed on the show. Shawn's dad, O'Hara, and Lassiter played small parts. The mystery and whole psychic slave thing was odd and make little sense.

Rating:






Recommendation: I would tentatively recommend this book to people who are big fans of the show. 

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