Psych: A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read

Ok, this wasn't actually for me... it was a gift for my girl. I'm a video gamer, and she's a book reader. [For all the guys without girls and All the single ladies! All the single ladies!! (sorry, had to!) If one reads books and the other games, it creates this bizzare natural harmony & understanding of the other. Try it sometime!] Anyway my girlfriend and I love Psych! We've been watching since the beginning. So this holiday season, I needed a couple small gifts that would hit the mark! This book blew her away! For as many books as she reads, and for as much as we both go online... how'd she miss this and I find it?! (Definitely no video game/KISS products to be found here) I was kinda worried that her having such high book standards, and me with my rather limited interest in books, that it might not live up to the show or her idea of it... NOPE! It about put the girl in tears when she saw it! Smash hit! She literally started reading it right away. Ok, so guys and dolls out there who are fans of the USA Network, you have got to get this! Who knew that the the best shows on the USA Network have books to accompany?! (Burn Notice has a series too, check 'em out!) Maybe someday for us guys the USA Network will release WWE on paperback... (the perfect story for our girlfriends to read to us while we play our video games!) Until next time...

This book should have been an episode. It was that good. It was fun, funny, and, well... Psych! Shawn was normal, and Gus was, well, normal. This Book was great, and I've read it 6 times. It get's better every time!

Well worth the seven bucks. I'll buy the next one. It was a blast to read , no dead spots, it just kept going from the beginning to the end. Nice visual book -- it read like watching a TV show, (for some reason). And even though it was comedy it was complicated -- it had more twists and turns than any mystery I've ever read. I haven't watched the TV show, so I was a little concerned that I'd be lost for awhile. Not even close. The three page prologue set it up perfectly and I was off and running right from the beginning. The premise is fresh and the characters are fun. Well done.

After one parking ticket too many, Gus' car is towed, leaving Shawn and Gus without wheels. When they go to the impound lot to try to retrieve it, they are met with an angry attendant with a gun. Gus flees the scene and has a run in with a car, leaving him in a coma. When he wakes up 24 hours later, Shawn is being kept company by Tara, a beautiful woman who claims to be a slave to Shawn's every psychic command. Trying again to retrieve Gus' car, the duo, now a trio, find the attendant murdered. Shawn thinks that it is the sign of a huge government conspiracy (well, as huge as you can get when only the city of Santa Barbara is involved), but Gus thinks they should look a little closer to home. Tara is creeping him out. And when more strange things start to happen, Gus thinks Tara needs to go. The only problem is, she won't leave. How can Gus and Shawn get her to leave? Is she responsible for the things that keep happening to their enemies? As a huge fan of Psych, I was really looking forward to this book. And it didn't disappoint in the slightest. Take my advise, don't read this book in public. Some of the lines were so funny and situations so absurd I couldn't stop myself from laughing out loud as I read. While the entire book is entertaining, the mystery aspect really kicks into high gear in the second half. Even with the twists and turns, there are still plenty of funny moments. And the author found a great way to insert Shawn's vision into the book. The book focuses mainly on Shawn and Gus, leaving the rest of the TV cast to even more supporting roles than usual. I could certainly hear all the actors speaking the lines for their characters. While I do agree with other reviewers that O'Hara seemed to be a bit more of a grump than on the show, I did think her attitude toward Shawn was supported by the events of the book. Along those lines, I did find a couple scenes that go a bit further then they can get away with on TV in bad taste, but neither scene is more then a few lines. I mainly bring it up so fans of the show aren't surprised by them. My only real complaint is the narrative technique. Most chapters start with Shawn and Gus in the middle of something. After a page, we "flash back" to the end of the last chapter and spend several pages getting them to where we already know they are. It's never confusing. A little of that is fine, but overuse is one of my biggest pet peeves. Fans looking to play the "find the pineapple" game will be disappointed to learn there isn't one here. But that's a minor "flaw." Fans of the TV show will be delighted by this novel. It's a great way to spend some more time with some funny characters.

Shawn Spencer was best friends with Gus since they were youngsters and that has not changed since they became adults. They are partners in a private detective agency in which Shawn pretends to be psychic. They are unable to find evidence to exonerate their client Veronica Mason who is on trial for murder. Shawn, using his "gift" badgers a juror into confessing to the crime. When they get out of the courthouse, Gus' car has been towed. They go to the impound lot only to learn they owe $6000 in fines for overdue tickets due to their failure to pay other tickets they received.. Shawn reads the person and learns he is an escapee from an Arizona chain gang. The convict starts to shoot at the sleuths who flee but Gus is hit by a car. Gus awakens in the hospital where he learns Shawn has acquired Tara, an unbalanced woman who believes she is psychic and can hear Shawn's thoughts. She becomes his shadow and does what she thinks he wants her to do. Meanwhile a high school classmate adversary of Shawn, billionaire Dallas Steele offers a large sum of money to Shawn to prove to Dallas he is psychic. Between Dallas and Tara, Shawn is in deep trouble that turns worse when his high school enemy is killed with the police holding his psychic slave in custody as she claims Shawn made her do it. PSYCH is a serio-comedic mystery that will have readers laughing at some of the situations Shawn and Gus land in yet also has a sort of Son of Sam tragic element. On a par with renowned for TV show adaptations Lee Goldberg, William Rabkin provides an entertaining whimsical novelization of the show as the imagination and jocularity come across solidly. Fans will enjoy PSYCH summed up by its subtitle: "A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read." Harriet Klausner