High Impact

Whew, an intense and enthralling screenplay-type read, for sure! Kam Majd's High Impact has it all and then some: a capable, beautiful and vulnerable heroine and stalwart and equally brilliant ex lover who move at warp speed through crises and illuminations in hopes of finding a way to save our heroine's young daughter who has unwittingly been caught up in military espionage of global proportions. What's really fine and fun about Majd's second novel is the idea of Remote Viewing, a type of intuitive seeing/knowing, sometimes called psychic spying, which is central to the plot. Remote Viewing has been done by the Russian and US military since the 1970's and is a capability highly prized by many governments. At the other end of the spectrum, religious studies including shamanism incorporate distant visualizing and healing, similar to Remote Viewing, all of which blow our current limited thinking about the capabilities of the human mind out of the water. So for a super adventure and quick intro to Thought, pick up Majd's latest heart stopper and mind expander.

Kate Gallagher and her six year old daughter are at the airport - heading for their flight. Except that Kate is the pilot! (I love the concept of a female pilot). During the walk through this airport, the daughter collides with a man and for a brief instant a strange connection happens. Kate and her daugher get on the plane and their lives change forever.This book was excellent. I was worried, at first, that the crux of the story would occur on the ground (I LOVE airplane disaster stories), but I need not worry. The last 40 or so pages are based in the air and are completely hair raising. I enjoy this author's writing style, the characters are enjoyable and the pace is great.One comment though. I felt as though the author portrays his Kate character with just a little too much sugar. The relationship between the grandmother and grandaughter is fine, but anytime the relationships involved Kate the whole thing gets kind of sugary. The relationship between Kate and her mother is a little too perfect and frankly, silly. The relationship between Kate and Molly was sometimes annoying as Kate's ONLY focus was always "I want to be with my baby, I want to be with my baby"... Too much. I realize that the basis of the story is to save Molly, but the author made Kate sound so silly at times.

In the Miami Airport pilot Kate Gallagher and her six year old daughter Molly head to the plane that the former will fly while her child rides as a passenger. A sickly looking man accidentally knocks into Molly with both feeling the electric shock that passes between them. The man apologizes before racing for his flight. However, the plane he rides suddenly loses all electrical power. The man, Evan Blake, panics and sends a psychic message to warn the "others" that the destruction of Nogales was real and Hawkins was coming for them. Molly receives that psychic message that sends her into unconsciousness yelling about the fire. The other plane crashes into the sea while Molly is rushed to the hospital.With Evan dead, Hawkins knows he just has to eliminate the other witnesses to the remote viewing incident at Nogales. However, he hears a TV news interview that describes what happened to Molly. He does not care whether Blake made psychic contact with the child or not because he will eliminate that problem regardless using his ability to communicate with the environment as he did to the plane.Fans of action-packed thrillers that use psychic abilities in a realistic manner will want to read the second Kate Gallagher tale. The story line starts at the speed of light and picks up speed until the final landing. Molly is a solid precocious child who inadvertently becomes embroiled in something outside her understanding. Kate is a great protagonist and the support cast enhances her as a nurturing single working mother or as a lioness walking a HIGH WIRE protecting her cub. Readers will enjoy this strong Davidette vs. Goliath survivor tale.Harriet Klausner