The Third Eye

by Lois Duncan

Karen's just your average babysitter. Or that's what she tells everyone anyway. Until, that is, she gets roped into a case involving a mass kidnapping.

This book is one of my favorites I've read this year, which isn't to say it isn't without problems, just that I really enjoyed reading the story. I've never read I Know What You Did Last Summer, but I understand why this author got a movie deal. FAIR WARNING: This book takes place in the '80s and you'll run into problematic stuff from that time period. That's just the way it is.

The characters aren't perfect people. Karen is flawed, makes stupid mistakes, worries too much about what other people including her shitty boyfriend, overbearing mother, and boring father think, but this is a book about overcoming those things. If she didn't make those mistakes, she couldn't rise above them.

It seems that every other book I read contains a detective/police officer as the romantic interest. This is mainly (I think) because the genre is more focused on the mystery and by letting the officer double as love interest, you can have a romance without bashing the knees out of the plot with a baseball bat. Unfortunately, this usually relegates the character to a plot device. He's there to shake his fist at the heroine, put on his best daddy voice, and warn her to stop interfering.

But not Detective Wilson!

Not only is he here to entice Karen to interfere in the investigation and defy her overbearing parents, he's also a driving force for the plot. He's definitely not a perfect guy, but he seems very human for a steely-eyed stereotype, and at the end of the day I liked him!

Recommended for fans of franchises like The Twilight Zone, Supernatural, or Buffy the Vampire Slayer.