Thursday, January 16, 2014

Phantom Dreams: a Paranormal Thriller with a Special Appeal to Female Readers

“Phantom Dreams” a recently published paranormal thriller by an up and coming author by T. K. Harris is paranormal mystery novel with a special twist - in addition to the usual serial killer, FBI agents and unsolved murders, we get a glimpse into the life of a woman trying to balance her work with her role as care giver for her ailing father while dealing with her paranormal "gift" or curse, since she can witness murders in her dreams. the central character of the book is Kathy Gilliam, a 28 year old woman who sees excruciating details of murders in her dreams, or rather, her nightmares, since the dreams are filled with pain and death. Kathy, the woman who gets these vivid and frightening nightmares, seeks psychiatric treatment. Then, based on the suggestions of her health provider, she writes down the details of her dreams. After she confides in her close friend, she realizes that the murders she sees in her dreams were real-life murders. Somehow, her paranormal abilities allowed her to see those gruesome killings as dreams. In the book, when Kathy approached the authorities, she was at first written off as an eccentric person seeking attention. But later, when the FBI realized that Kathy knows intimate details which were not disclosed to the public, they started suspecting her. However, they also realized that Kathy matches the height, age, and features of the women who were killed – and they wonder if she was to be the next victim. The story ends with a surprise twist, a satisfying dramatic ending. Like some of the other successful paranormal media productions (such as the hit TV series “Medium”), “Phantom Dreams” spends as much energy on describing Kathy’s exhaustion about her dual role as a caregiver of her ailing father and her work as it does over describing the gory details of the murders and mayhem. I believe most women readers can relate to the stress resulting from trying to find the balance between their work and their role as caregivers, whether they see it in Kathy, the single 29-year-old in “Phantom Dreams” who takes care of her father while also dealing with tons of issues at work, or in Alison Dubois, a married woman who attempts to balance family life with helping the police in solving mysteries using her special gift in the hit TV series “Medium.”

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