BY: PINKIE PARANYA

What if a relentless predator—a parent’s worst nightmare come true—dropped out of nowhere? He has, and now cynical Detective Richard Slater and reluctant psychic Kate Macklin are all that stand between death and life for the children targeted by this psycho. But can Richard and Kate piece together the puzzle before the killer comes for them, too?

 

TAYLOR JONES SAYS: One…Two…Buckle My Shoe by P. K. Paranya is a paranormal thriller of with a very surprising ending. It simply blew me away! Of course, I liked the story from the beginning. The heroine, Katharine Macklin, gets psychic messages through her computer. Gotta love it! These messages give her information about the serial killer of five-year-old blonde girls. So naturally, she tries to help the police. Our hero, Detective Sergeant Richard Slater doesn’t believe in psychics, but he hasn’t been able to solve the crimes and the number of slain children keeps going up. So the Chief decides Slater will go see Katharine and hear her out. Much to Richard’s dismay, Katharine has information that has not been made public. Even worse, she knows there is going to be another murder soon.

Paranya tells a chilling story. The psychology and characterization is amazing. I absolutely loved the book, chilling as it was, and found that once I picked it up. I couldn’t put it down. If you want a book that will touch you, make you laugh and cry, and keep you riveted until the very last word, you can’t go wrong with One…Two…Buckle My Shoe.

REGAN MURPHY SAYS: One…Two…Buckle My Shoe by P. K. Paranya was quite a surprise. Paranya really did her homework on this one. The psychology behind the motives of the serial killer was extremely well done. The characters are very complex and completely three dimensional. I was fascinated with all of them, from the heroine who is an agoraphobic and afraid to leave the house to the bitter and cynical detective, to the psychologically disturbed serial killer. The story revolves around a psychic, Katharine, who starts out getting messages from the dead children on her computer. (I knew computers were evil. I just never could prove it!) Katharine takes her information to the police, who remember her from when her daughter disappear and Katharine’s psychic messages led them to her body. The police aren’t sure if Katharine is a suspect or if she really is a psychic, but she had too much information for them to just ignore her. When Detective Slater gets involved, he is most unhappy about having to work with a psychic. Then he meets Katharine and becomes convinced she is for real. But then Katharine starts getting messages from the killer, also on her computer, and things start to get very interesting.

Paranya waves in a nice little romance between Katharine and Richard, some very nice twists and turns to the plot, and an ending that was totally unexpected. Like Taylor, once I picked it up, I couldn’t put it down until I was done.