Psych: A Mind...

Psych: A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Read
Written By: William Rabkin
Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Signet
Language: English
January 2009, $6.99
Genre: Fiction/TV Series

Based on the hit usa network TELEVISION series. A tie-in readers will be totally “psyched” about...

Shawn Spencer has convinced everyone he’s psychic. Now, HE HAS TO either clean up— or be found out…

After the PSYCH detective agency gets some top-notch publicity, Shawn’s high-school nemesis, Dallas Steele, hires him to help choose his investments. Naturally, their predictions turn out to be total busts. And the deceptive Dallas is thrilled that he has completely discredited and humiliated Shawn once and for all—until he’s found murdered.

But the police have a suspect—found at the scene with a smoking gun. And she says Shawn took control of her mind and forced her to do it. After all, he is a psychic…


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I love the show ‘Psych’. It is funny, snarky, and has enough pop culture references to make a girly girl geek like me extremely happy. When it comes to novelizations based on tv shows or films they often are a bit hit or miss for me. It helps that the author has actually written a script for the series. So how did he do? Its not a perfect little story, but it has its moments.

After Shawn saves a wealthy widow in court, thereby making the district attorney look like an utter fool, Coules takes revenge by impounding Gus’s car. When our heroes go to get it back not only do they get shot at by the impound lot attendant, but Gus gets hit by a Mercedes driven by a woman named Tara who says she is Shawn’s psychic slave. Insert a subplot involving a former classmate of Shawn and Gus who hires them to make some investments, Shawn and Gus implicated in murders, and more wacky Psych types of fun. It reads like an imperfect episode complete with little Shawn and Gus flashback and possibly a pineapple somewhere in there though I think it was missing sadly. You also have plenty of snark battles between Shawn and Lassiter, Henry lecturing and the ever present banter from Shawn that is oh so quotable.

There are a few problems. The Dallas Steele subplot doesn’t quite work and I was a bit annoyed with Juliet’s characterization which made her read like a sullen and sulky teenager which is sad because I adore her. District Attorney Coules is also a bit of a one note and fairly two dimensional at best. But there are enough laughs and moments to make me laugh out loud and that doest happen often.

It’s a fun light read that makes me happy until Psych returns this summer. It’s not perfect, but it works and I would recommend it to any Psych fan.

3 out of 4 happy bibliosnark bookmarks

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