Hold Back the Dark (Bishop/Special Crimes Unit)

I love Kay Hooper. I eagerly await each new publication. This one, however, I feel missed the mark. The characters didn't seem as developed and the ending? She built it up and it was over in two sentences. VERY anticlimactic. VERY disappointing.

I religiously read all of Kay Hooper’s novels about the SCU, this book felt like a bit of a let down though. The action felt rushed and crammed into the final three pages...it feels very much like half a book.

The book was Not up to Kay Hoopers standards. Started out good but the ending was supremely lacking. Like she was in a hurry to end it and move on. I will continue to read her books so I hope her next one will be better.

I really enjoy the bishop series. I would have liked to know what happened to the survivors of the energy. I enjoyed the new characters in this book. As always I love Hollis' character. Can't wait for the next book in both series.

The Bishop novels are my favorite books. They are easy to read and hard to put down. This is a good book, but too short. There were too many characters and not enough character development. The ending was a bit of a letdown. This is not up to Kay Hooper's usual standards. Still a good read, but not one of her best.

Another great book. I especially enjoyed it because I grew up close to Prosperity, SC. Thought about moving there about 33 years ago. This Prosperity perfect fit. Anything with Hollis and Reese is a perfect read! Great series!

As usual, Kay Hooper has written an intricate mystery with our old friends in the SCU ,Haven and a few who do not want to belong to either group. I sometimes wonder where and how she developes her plots because they are unique. I would have appreciated a bit more information on the wrap-up of the story. It just ended. However, this does not detract from the overall excellence of the book! I am anxiously awaiting the next installation of the exploits of the SCU and Haven.

Many thanks to the author / Berkley Publishing / Netgalley for the advanced digital copy. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

Mediums. Clairvoyants. Empaths. Telepaths. Empathic Healers. Psychics of all sorts are being summoned from within. Severe headaches, blackouts, strange colors, and those whispering voices ... all are saying the same thing .... go to Prosperity.

Prosperity is a small town in North Carolina that has had more than its share of paranormal activity over the years. The warning now is the evil that emanates there must be stopped and stopped now to keep it from spreading all over the country.

And in Prosperity, the evil is gathering strength. A man commits suicide. His last note was Just Me, Not Them. A housewife brutally kills and mutilates her husband and three children. She remembers nothing. A real estate agent guns down two clients. He, too, remembers nothing. A sheriff's deputy comes close to strangling his wife. He's lucky ... he resisted the voices telling him to kill and his wife is still alive.

Even with all their 'gifts' and powers ... will they be able to stop the evil?

For those who have followed this series, it will be a real treat in that many characters from previous books are all together in one place .. a reunion of sorts... just not a real happy one. There are a few new players and I hope to see more of them in future books.

The premise is okay, the characters are outstanding, but this isn't one of the author's best. The ending felt a bit abrupt and without the fast action that is usually seen in her books. Because of the characters, it was still well worth reading.

3.5 Stars

After seeing Hollis and Reese come together as a romance pair as well as FBI Special Crimes partnering, I was tickled to see them back and fabulous as ever against a resident evil. They are working with an unconventional team this time around and I enjoyed meeting all these new players.

Hold Back the Dark is the eighteenth book in this long standing paranormal thriller romance series and is also the sixth book in the sub-series within the larger one of Bishop's SCU FBI team stories. There is a little feeling of this book being tied in with the rest of the series, but I suppose, in a pinch, a person could grab this one out of order. There are character charts and a list of psychic terms in the back of the book to help out.

Hold Back the Dark was an interesting one. It felt very much like the start of a new series in ways. It introduced a half-dozen new people, their pasts, and their gifts, their ties to the SCU and Haven and then the story got into the main case they are all working on. With this one, I felt like the inter-personal and individual stories were more the focus than their actual case. Like others before it in this series, it was a gritty, violent series of murders and the reader gets a sense the team and local law enforcement are up against some true evil.

Because, this built a huge front porch (all the set up and intros), I felt the overall story development was uneven. The end was rushed and abrupt. I was actually thinking as I neared the last pages that the story would carry over into another book, but then suddenly, wham, here's the answers and wham, there's the finish. I felt more was needed to conclude this book for me with unanswered questions that were brought up earlier let alone what's the direction for all these new characters. As this is part of an ongoing series, I can only hope that this just means the next book will tease some of that out.

Several characters take turns being the focus and the narrators though the main pair are Hollis and Reese. Hoillis is worried about being lead over a group that she doesn't know and they are all heading into a huge, dark situation with apocalyptic possibilities if they fail. She has to learn to rely on others, not try to shield them, and let people do their jobs. I loved how Hollis heeded Bishop's advice and lived up to his great confidence in her. And what I really loved was seeing that, once again, Reese totally respected her as an equal partner and had no trouble with her as the lead. He loves her, but he also respects and trusts her.

So, another thrilling installment in the series was easily devoured. There are some dark, gritty, and moderately squeamish descriptions when the investigators come across the grisly crime scenes, but I was able to handle it because it wasn't told in the present just described afterward. Those who enjoy psychic thrillers or paranormal romantic suspense would be the best fit for this book.

Bishop’s team of psychics is back and this time they have been summoned along with some all new psychics and there are up against an evil that is pushing for a blood bath in this chilling paranormal suspense that had the hair on the back of my neck standing up on end.

Kay Hooper’s suspenseful world of psychics is full of wonderful characters that are strong and captivating, always adding lots of depth to each and every case as they try to solve cases using their psychic abilities and at least some of the time they become targets because of those abilities as well. Every case is different and each have their own unique elements and the author makes it all seem very plausible and real that I can’t help but get chills just thinking about.

Hold Back the Dark is the newest thrilling read in the series and I was completely enthralled and unable to put the book down until I had read every last detail. The suspense and anticipation kept building throughout and there was no way to predict just what the evil might make happen next which of course means that there is never a dull moment and to make this book even more interesting, the author introduces some new psychics that have trouble controlling their gifts / curses. There is not really a new romance in this book but there are couples that have hooked up in previous books involved in the case so you still get a bit of romance throughout the story.

I can never get enough of this series, so of course I can’t wait to read the next one which I think will be the third book in the Bishop Files series and it will be out in October.

Very creepy addition to the series. A psychic blast was sent out and received by small group of psychics to come to Prosperity, North Carolina. Something evil is going on there and only this group can stop it.

Noah Bishop and his wife felt the blast but were not part of the invitation but they do provide the place in North Carolina for everyone to gather before heading to Prosperity. Hollis Templeton and her partner/lover Reece DeMarco along with 6 other psychic who are not part of Bishops SCU team were the ones that got the summons. Those 6 psychic are aware of SVU but have not wanted to join and instead try to live ordinary lives with un-ordinary abilities. Even though hesitant they know they need to get to Prosperity to help fight whatever evil has taken over the town.

Madness has taken over a few of the residents minds and had them comment unspeakable acts of violence. Sheriff Jackson Archer has never had any trouble in Prosperity. Its a nice, peaceful place to live. He doesn’t understand the heinous murders that are suddenly being committed in his town and only at the urging of his chief deputy Katie Cole who has kept her abilities hidden does he call in Noah Bishop’s special team.

You curiosity was captivated from the beginning. I liked how the author had the book broken up into three sections.. The Summons, The Gathering and then The Darkness. The ending was a little abrupt and I am hoping that we get to see more of the 6 in future books but overall I liked this creepy little addition to the series.

A dark and evil presence is attempting to destroy the balance between good and evil, to save the world the Chosen have been summoned to Prosperity. This small town in the mountains of North Carolina has always been peaceful until strange deaths start occurring, the likes of which they have never seen. The SCU is called in to help with the investigation as well as the Chosen. It will take all of them to stop this evil from destroying everything.

I am a huge fan of Kay Hooper’s and the Bishop books but I was disappointed with this one. The new characters weren’t developed and minimal background was given. The deaths that occurred were skimmed over as well as the crime scenes. The evil itself was hardly touched on and the finale of the book was quick and easy. I would have only given it 3 to 3 ½ sheep but since this author usually delivers I went ahead with a 4 sheep since it was still worth reading.

This is a Bishop/Special Crimes Unit novel. Some being has summoned several psychics, two from the Unit but the rest just untrained citizens, to Prosperity, North Carolina for a fight to balance out the scales of negative and positive energy and dissipate the energy that has escaped into the town and close the portal it has escaped from. Included among this group are: FBI agent Hollis who is a medium, an energy manipulator, sees auras, heals herself and others, and is an empath; FBI agent DeMarco who is a telepath with a double psychic shield that he can extend and protect someone else with; FBI agent Galen who was not summoned but felt that he needed to be there who can be very difficult to kill; Olivia who suffers from headaches and is telekinetic; Logan who is a powerful medium; Reno who is a clairvoyant and seer and she can bring someone into her visions if they touch her while she is having one; Dalton is a powerful telepath who has no shields to protect himself from the outside world and therefore hears everything people think and spends his time being angry which gives any empath around him a headache; Victoria can put people to sleep, but Hollis believes that she has a latent ability that should show itself soon; and Sully who is an empath who can even feel what animals feel and suffers headaches and blackouts.

In Prosperity a man walked down to the basement with the laundry and shot himself in the head with a rifle leaving behind a suicide note that said: "Just me not them". While he was doing that a woman was busy killing and chopping up her husband and three children eating the fingers of one her children then crawling up in a ball and going into a sleep that she can't be awakened from. This is a quiet town where nothing really happens and the Sheriff doesn't know what to make of it. His Chief Deputy, though, does as she is a clairvoyant who knows Bishop and tells him she knows who to call.

Hollis and DeMarco arrive with Galen coming separately doing a ride around the town getting the lay of the land. The first thing they notice is a pressure bearing down on them trying to get in. Hollis can also feel the tension and anger of the town. People are suffering from headaches from the pressure on their minds. Another two murders happen and then Hollis senses that there is someone who is struggling to not give in to the voices in their head to kill someone but she isn't sure who it is or if they will succeed. Later one of the Sheriff's deputies arrives frantically because he almost killed his wife. Victoria puts him to sleep and they lock him up for his safety.

The group decides to go out and search for the portal out in the valley where the murders happened but get distracted by others who are close to killing. Hollis feels that this evil is something familiar. Also, all of their other cases in this area of the southeast can all be linked back to this spot. The idea of this book is a good one and the beginning and middle of it are great. But the ending is a bit of a fizzle and a letdown. It's like she got tired of writing and decided to just quickly end it and stop. I really liked the new characters though and I think this book was really a way to introduce them to the series. This book is still well written and while the ending is questionable is stellar before that so I still give it three and a half out of five stars.

I ran across Hooper's Bishop books when the first came out, & read the first 3-4 right away. I'd kinda lost track of them since, only snagging one now & then, so it's been a while. Yikes. This one makes me want to make sure that I don't read any of the newer ones. There's, at best, a short story's worth of actual plot here; the other 95% of this is talk. And more talk. Sill more talk. Son of talk. Talk returns. Talk and Abbbot and Costello meet the Wolfman. Then, the end comes in the last 2 pages; some unknown angelic something appears in the 2nd to last page, & talks about something, the baddie is revealed & vanquished (sort of --there's not even a real resolution) in the last page, & it's over. At least the talk is over, hallelujah.

The overwhelming majority of the book is, as I may have mentioned, talk. A bit of stuff actually happens at the very beginning, then people talk about it. Then more people show up & talk about it. Some people travel, & they join the others & talk about it. Eventually a bunch of people not in the unit arrive in the small mountain town where we get peeks of horrible things happening, and ye gods, the talk really takes off. I skimmed massive chunks of the book, trying desperately to find a paragraph here & there where something was happening other than those frigging people talking about energy...negative or positive. Negative and positive. How nobody knew what was going on. Then a non-psychic type gets let in on psychic stuff & we have vast tracts of verbose yakking where they sorta try & explain some of the psychic stuff. Then he joins in the talk about the +/- energy issue & how nobody knows what's going on. And they blather some more.

If I had been able to stand to read more & skim less, I have a feeling there could have been huge chunks of dialogue that were just copied & pasted over & over, with minor variations tossed in. But life is too short to spend that much time analyzing this travesty of a rip-off masquerading as a book. I'm sure there'll be devoted fans who'll love the book merely because some of their fave characters show up, who don't care that it's a piece of tripe that the author didn't bother to put any effort into & so hopes lots of devoted fans will fork out money for the piece of tripe. Thank heavens my local library had it, tho it grieves me that my tax dollars were spent on this waste. I wouldn't care if it had been a book I didn't like, if it had been a real book. But it's really not.

Prosperity, a small town in which crime is usually benign and sporadic, has seen an upswing of violent and suspicious deaths. Sheriff Jackson Archer has no idea of the cause, but Chief Deputy Katie Cole is certain that it is paranormal in nature. After using her influence with the sheriff to convince him to call in some experts, the Special Crimes Unit of the FBI is dispatched to the location. Some of the SCU agents, as well as others with abilities that have yet to join, get a supernatural signal to go to Prosperity to add their skills to the fight. Unit Chief Noah Bishop and his wife, Agent Miranda Bishop, scramble the team and soon discover that evil lurks in the town and threatens the very existence of the residents. Will the team be able to squash the evil before it takes hold of every member of Prosperity, as well as the SCU?

I was just not impressed with Hold Back the Dark. The author barely scratched the surface of the evil that lurk within before the book was abruptly at its end. Too many elements of the story seemed familiar and the plot did not seem to move forward in a natural way. It was almost as if the author had a list of plot points to hit and a maximum word count before completion. I have read most of the Special Crime Unit books and this one does not rank anywhere near the top 10. For these reasons, I would be hesitant to recommend Hold Back the Dark to other readers.

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Andra

The latest installment of the Bishop/Special Crimes Unit Series, Hold Back the Dark, is an engaging read. My attention was held throughout and in fact, as the story went on, I could not seem to put the book down – it was that captivating!

If you have followed the series, you will find a number of characters come together in Prosperity, North Carolina to find out (and stop) the residents of this small town from killing each other. It seems that the “something” has captured the town and torturing them by having the residents partake in unspeakable atrocities amongst themselves. The local constabulary (specifically Chief Deputy Katie Cole – she seems to have some abilities of her own) request the help of the feds (the Special Crime Unit-SCU) as the situation is escalating quickly and beyond their means to solve what is really happening in their small town.

Even before the request for help, Bishop was assembling a team to go to Prosperity. And this team would consist of six new characters with psychic abilities that they have not fully developed or understood (or maybe even denying or ignoring.

“Those summoned are untrained people, lacking experience as well as unwilling, or unable, for one reason or another, to be feds, cops, or other kinds of investigators.” “All are exceptionally powerful, or have the potential to be, even though most lack even nominal control.” “They’ve all met each other, spent some time together. For a while, they lived in a sort of group home. Some have known each other for years. And some of them were, at least at one time, close.”:

Olivia Castle heard the whispered demand that made no sense to her – Prosperity. Go to Prosperity.
Logan Alexander is a man of hard-headed practicality…and a medium and he was told by a ghost -> You have to go to Propensity, Logan. You have to help them….We’ll all be in danger if you can’t help then stop it. The living and the dead.
Reno Bellman – while on a date began “hearing” -> Come…come to…come to Prosperity. They…need you. We all need you. You have to come to Prosperity.” Her vision of what was to come was just frightening!
Sully Maitland
Victoria Stark
Dalton Davenport – a telepath

And of course, some of the “regular” cast of characters came back to fight….Hollis (arguably, the most powerful individual psychic in the unit) and her partner, Reese DeMarco. I really enjoyed reconnecting with those two. Especially interesting to see how far their personal relationship had progressed, how their connection augmented each other and their psychic abilities.

It must be said, I was certainly disturbed by the mayhem that ensued…so many deaths…and not all of them easy to read about. At the same time, I was in awe at how well the team worked together to figure out “what” was going on in Prosperity and react in such a way as to neutralize any threat to the town.

One point to make, I did find that this book was a bit flat in the middle compared to the others in the series that I have read. Additionally, the ending came abruptly. Luckily, what made the story was the coming together of many characters that have been interspersed throughout the previous books, as well as some newbies – which I can’t wait to see where their story lines take them. Nice to see so many of the characters together.

If you are a fan of mysteries with paranormal / supernatural thrown in as well as some romance, then I would suggest reading this latest installment of the Bishop/Special Crimes Unit series – Hold Back the Dark. In fact – read the whole series!

I agree with the other reviewers here. I listened to this book on Audible and these books just aren't as good as the used to be. Three quarters of this book (and the past few books for that matter) recap the characters, there gifts (powers) and the unit itself. Then the actual plot line is crammed into the the last few chapters and leaves the story line hanging....again. The past two to three books, if not more, could have been combined into one and they still would not make a full story line.

I’m sorry to say this book was a disappointment. It almost seemed like a synopsis of a book. We’re told something happened but we don’t “experience “ it through the story. The ending is particularly awkward with some item, that we’ve never heard of solving the mystery. It’s just not a very good book. Maybe the next one will be better because I loved the previous stories.

What happened?! It had so much promise. Interesting characters, a plot that sounded like something we have yet to read... but then a HUGE letdown. I kept waiting for the characters to work together more, maybe a couple romantically link up, but nothing.

Then the ending resolved in a minute. So much questions left hanging; what happened to the teacher, the cop, the other members, etc?! It just felt like 200 pages were left out or she was rushed to do the middle and end.

Very disappointed, I love Kay Kooper’s books and this one was a major fail.

I have loved reading Kay Hooper's Bishop series, but this one is a let down. All of her paranormal investigators all come together in one town, but there is hardly any interaction between them. If you are a Classic Star Trek fan, it seems like the episode where some evil force is making people do things against their will. The solution was to put laughing gas in the air. This ending was more dramatic than the solution in this book. I feel Ms. Hooper could have done so much more by giving more depth to her characters, even the evil force.

The book started off great but about halfway through it felt like the author just got lazy. If she couldn't figure out the details of a scene, she just skipped it and jumped ahead a few hours to when everything was over and made a vague reference to something happening/being resolved. I want to know what happened to the school teacher. How did they seal up the opening? What happened to the people affected by the evil? Very disappointing.

I’ve always like the Bishop/SCU books, but this one was not up to par. The book started out great, but then the author must
have run out of idea because in a matter of a half chapter she just abruptly ended the book. It was like she just ran out of steam, so,she
concludes the story and left you hanging wondering what Happened?? Very poor excuse for a book. I’m sorry I paid for a hard
copy and got a condensed version of a story. Not worthy of a good author.

Have loved reading Ms. Hooper's Bishop novels from the beginning. However, this book was quite disappointing. I kept waiting for the story..and then the book was done. I look forward to the next book in the series...hoping for a story as good as her earlier endeavors.

I am going back through my collection of Kay Hooper books. This time via kindle. I still enjoy her books ever since I started reading them in the 1980s. They are timeless. I know some people may be put off by the definitely “dated” passages. But in my opinion (and having been a long time fan) those passages are like living in a different time. And reuniting with an old friend that is walking towards you.