It's almost impossible to pass up a new Bishop/Special Crimes
Unit novel from Kay Hooper. There have been three trilogies in
the series thus far: Shadows, Evil and Fear,
the latter of which is now completed with the publication of
SLEEPING WITH FEAR. The premise behind the series is that the FBI
has a Special Crimes Unit (SCU) headed by an enigmatic chief named
Noah Bishop, who has at his disposal a hand-picked group of agents
with unique abilities. Bishop matches an agent's ability to a case
and dispatches them forthwith; the result is a comfortable general
familiarity tying each of the novels, and trilogies, together while
making each one different and unique.

SLEEPING WITH FEAR easily achieves the success of its predecessors,
featuring a talented and attractive agent who is almost immediately
at a significant disadvantage. Riley Crane has been sent by Bishop
to Opal Island off the Carolina coast to investigate dangerous
paranormal activity, the manifestation of which includes a series
of ritualistic murders. Riley's clairvoyant abilities would appear
to hold her in good stead. Her problem, however, is that these
abilities seem to have vanished, along with her memory of the past
several weeks --- including how she comes to wake up one morning
covered in blood. She appears to be actively involved with the
local authorities in the investigation of the murders, and in fact
is involved on an intimate level with the local prosecutor.

One of Crane's other strengths is her ability to fit flawlessly
into any given situation. This she is able to do; it soon becomes
clear, however, that the secret behind her memory loss is linked to
a case from her past, one that she closed in the most definitive
way possible. Somehow, a killer has returned from the dead, and
Crane is on his list of victims. Hooper tantalizes the reader from
almost the first chapter, dropping occasional clues concerning the
etiology of Crane's amnesia while providing intermittent vignettes
from the past as both story paths converge toward a climactic
conclusion.

A great strength of Hooper's work is that the overlying premise of
her Bishop mythos permits her to take players on --- and off ---
the board at any time, providing an edginess to each storyline that
might otherwise not be present. SLEEPING WITH FEAR is an excellent
place to jump onto a series that, nine books into its inception,
may only be getting warmed up.