Curse of Salem

In bestseller Bishop’s so-so 20th paranormal thriller featuring the FBI’s Special Crimes Unit (after 2020’s Hidden Salem), Diana Hayes, the sole unit member with the ability to open a door to “the gray time... a sort of corridor between the living world and the spirit realm,” gets a grim warning from a spirit guide in the form of a little boy calling himself Daniel. Daniel cautions that the town of Salem is under threat from a serial killer targeting members of the five families who first settled it centuries before. That admonition leads Hayes and her colleagues to return to the scene of a previous case, to catch the murderer before he can strike again. The author doesn’t ease readers into her conceit of multiple special agents who are also mediums, psychics, and telepaths, reserving a comprehensive description of their powers and appearances for an appendix (one character possesses “the sort of rare beauty that turns heads wherever she goes despite the fact that she does nothing to play up her looks”). Readers should be prepared for thin characters and a lack of suspense. This is strictly for longtime fans. Agent: Eileen Fallon, Fallon Literary. (Dec.)