Deep Down

Supernatural-sensitive Hallie Michaels returns for a thrill-packed adventure in this solid follow-up to Wide Open. Hallie has been able to see ghosts since a near-death experience while soldiering in Afghanistan. Even this talent hasn’t equipped her for the latest weirdness in her rural South Dakota town: people are disappearing, and Rapid City is being overrun with doglike harbingers and death-dealing reapers. Years before, Travis Hollowell murdered the wife of deputy sheriff Boyd Davies; now Boyd is Hallie’s boyfriend, so she’s doubly concerned when Hollowell becomes a reaper and begins stalking Boyd’s sister-in-law. Before she can figure out how to resolve matters, Hallie will take a trip to the underworld and have several encounters with Death incarnate. Coates staffs her tale with other psychically gifted characters who give credible purpose to its wild events, and Hallie shows impressive grit and physicality while battling occult forces. Agent: Caitlin Blasdell, Liza Dawson Associates. (Mar.)