Rating: 
Summary: Fine installment in this dynamite series
Review: Private detective Elizabeth Chase still mourns the loss of a loved one while rebuilding her life. She takes on more cases and studies the shamanistic arts with Tecume Indian Sequoia. In addition to being a private detective, she is also a psychic. She has become so well known in solving police cases, the San Diego County sheriff's department hires her to assist in their investigation of the kidnapping of Matthew Fielding, the four-year-old son of multi-millionaire. Shortly after she interviews the parents of the missing boy, a wildfire near their estate breaks out, burning their home and killing both of them. Further inquiries prove that the fire was deliberately set. Shortly after that incident, another arson occurs, burning down an apartment building and part of Fielding's company proving that whoever took the child and set the fire has a powerful grudge against the family. Throughout their time of horror, Elizabeth's sixth sense insists that Mathew is still alive and she feels that she owes it to his dead parents to find him no matter what the dangers. After reading ASHES OF ARIES, only the most hardened skeptic will refute the existence of psychic powers in select individuals. The heroine accepts them in much the same way she accepts the color of her hair and eyes. Though she has these powers, Elizabeth predominately uses ordinary investigative skills because they are more reliable and steady then her sixth sense. The story line is totally absorbing, the plot is fast paced and action-packed while the characters, many of whom have appeared in other works, add dimension to a very deep human drama. Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: Down-to-earth psychic
Review: Psychic investigator and private eye Elizabeth Chase sets out to find a kidnapped four-year-old boy and nearly loses her own life in a deadly arson wildfire that sweeps through the San Diego neighborhood where the boy's parents - and Chase's own parents - live. The author, a psychic herself, paints a convincing, if sometimes frustrating, picture of the psychic's skills - chancy, sometimes cryptic and hardly ever available when you need it. Lawrence tells a crisp, fast-paced story, free of New Age philosophizing. Chase is a down-to-earth investigator who relies at least as much on her interviewing and research skills as on less tangible abilities. The child, Matthew Fielding, is the son of a telecommunications mogul. There's money, of course, and business tensions, a relative who desperately wanted a child, some angry Eco-terrorists, a gung-ho sheriff's deputy who might be a firebug. Chase doesn't hesitate to seek help from the experts - police, arson investigators, even an obnoxious reporter - and her case proceeds along comfortably conventional lines with helpful boosts from energy auras, telepathic advice and fragmentary visions. There are a few cliched characters (the brilliant and feisty female arson investigator, for one) but Chase is appealing and her talents believable. Fire ratchets up the suspense and the climax pulls out all the stops.
Rating:
Summary: The Suspense Never Stops
Review: The suspense never stops in this mystery starring psychic private investigator Dr. Elizabeth Chase. With the clock ticking, Elizabeth must use all of her detecting skills and psychic gifts to find a kidnapped child and an arsonist willing to sacrifice lives, homes, and countryside to wreak revenge. An engaging protagonist, an atmospheric setting, compelling characters, and a taut mystery combine to make this a great read. Although the fifth book in the series, it nonetheless stands alone as a page turning thriller.
Rating:
Summary: entertaining read
Review: This was my first Elizabeth Chase PI book. Kidnapping of 4-yr old child from wealthy community plus arson (out of control fires that destroyed communities and took lives) entertwined. Since this is fiction, I would like to have had a little more psychic adventure in the book. Overall, the book was very entertaining and was one of the few that I've read in the last year that I didn't turn to the back to see if the end justified reading the entire book. Martha's characters are on the whole well developed and believable. There was one glaring "technical" error that was well into the book. Was surprised that it got past both the author and publisher. I will make an effort to read more of this series.
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