Psych: Mind-Altering Murder Mass Market Paperback – February 1, 2011

Everyone who didn’t like this is reading it wrong. Forget about the virtual reality case, honestly that just provides the context to show how co dependent Shawn and Gus are. Also forget Juliet and Lassiter. They didn’t even need to be in this….I take that back Lassiter did for that little back and forth he had with Gus about sarcasm. But other than that this is about Shawn and Gus being codependent. This is a Yandere…Hannibal Psych AU story that I didn’t know I needed. It was basically Shawn manipulating everyone to get his boyfriend to come to his senses and come back home. That’s it. 😂

Detective Juliette O'Hara knows that Mandy Jansen didn't commit suicide. Oh sure, the former cheerleader was found hanging from the pipes in her basement apartment. But O'Hara knows the evidence is wrong. She just can't find anything to prove her theory right.Normally, she might turn to Shawn Spencer, but Shawn is occupied with a case of his own. Macklin Tanner, CEO of a virtual gaming company, has vanished and Shawn is convinced that the key to his disappearance is in the new virtual reality game that his company was about to release.And Gus? Well, Gus has decided it is time to grow up and get a grown up job at a pharmaceutical company in San Francisco. Will his attempts to leave Psych behind work? Or will one of these cases wind up involving his new company?Author William Rabkin took some big risks with this tie in novel to the TV show psych, but I think they actually work well. By separating Shawn and Gus, we get a good look at their friendship from both points of view, and it helped me understand the dynamics better. Shawn seemed a bit overly dense in this book, but other than that I thought the characters were pretty much in character.There are really two parallel plots in the book. They move in and out of each other effortlessly, and it's easy to keep them apart. I found both to be quite interesting. Honestly, I had a hard time putting the book down. I did figure out thing out about the time Shawn did, although there were lots of details I didn't get on my own.The last couple of novels in this series haven't been as good as the first two, but this one is back on track. I thought it was a great way to get a fix of the show until it returns this fall.

I find this book very difficult to review because it is different from the other books in the series. I have now read all five of the books and this one is not the normal of the other books or the TV show.First, Gus is the star in this book. The story finds him struggling with the decision to either stay with his current pharmaceutical job and his role at Psych (and stay a child who is irresponsible and childish) or accept an executive position at a much larger pharmaceutical company in San Francisco which would mean no longer working with Shawn at Psych in Santa Barbara (and growing up as he feels he should do). This scenerio puts him at great odds with Shawn who doesn't want to lose his friend and doesn't want to face change, but at the same time, he feels he must let Gus go if that is what makes Gus happy. Gus goes from being very moody and indecisive until he decides to relocate and accept the position in the new company at which point he's content that he has made the correct decision. However, employees at this company are dying in supposed accidents which begin to look like murders.Meanwhile, Shawn is working on a missing person's case that involves him playing a special video game where the clues to this person's whereabouts can be found.And meanwhile, Lassie and Jules are working on a baffling possible suicide or murder case that is personally affecting Jules.Now all of this begins to intertwine and come together. For most of the story, Shawn and Gus are doing their own thing, Shawn works with Jules and Lassie only briefly, Gus and Jules and Lassie only briefly connect, and so on until the very end when it all comes together, and so do they.When I first started reading this book, I thought I wasn't going to like it. It began with Shawn and Gus playing this rather macabre video game and was sort of weird and depressing. But once the action and intrique began shortly after this from the development of these three parallel stories going on at the same time, I found it difficult to put the book down. I wanted to keep reading because I was curious how it was going to all come together and I was anxious to see what was going to happen to Shawn and Gus's friendship. I had no idea how it was going to end until Shawn began putting it all together so it kept me guessing who was really the culprit. I will admit that it took some getting used to that Shawn and Gus were at serious odds through most of the story because that's not usual with the other books and the show. But it did allow different insight into their friendship and their individual personalities that we don't normally see. I would say to give it a shot and don't be thrown too far off by the more realistic portrayals of the main characters. It's worth the read.

A really good show and book

Very much like an episode on TV in terms of the feel of the story and the way the guys would talk. What was really nice was that the whole "inside the computer" world that was really expanded far more than any TV episode could have worked into a standard TV time slot. Shawn digging deep into that virtual world plot was awesome!

I was disappointed in this book. I love the TV show and thought I would enjoy the books, but I was wrong. It does not hold my interest.

If you were a fan of the TV series you will love this book! It's written just like a long TV episode. While reading it you can almost imagine the characters and their voices and mannerisms. I recommend this book to any fan!

'Gus don't be..."

It's Psych! Nothing more to say!

Great items

Everything was great

I like all the Psych books but this one--it was very hard to get into the plot jumped around too much.