Beyond Belief: How Do You Catch a Killer No One Believes In? »

Roy Johansen's first screenplay, Murder 101, written while he was in college, was produced for cable TV and won an Edgar Award as well as a Focus Award, which is sponsored by Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, and Martin Scorsese. He has written for Disney, MGM, United Artists, Universal, and Warner Bros. He lives in southern California with his wife, Lisa.

How do you catch a killer no one believes in?

They call Joe Bailey the Spirit Basher. Formerly a professional magician, he’s become an ace police detective in Atlanta, debunking phony psychics and spiritualists who prey on the gullible. And he’s just caught his first sensational murder case.

The victim is the head of a university parapsychology program, impaled in his own home by a massive sculpture no one could possibly have lifted. The prime suspect: an eight-year-old boy with violent telekinetic activity that erupts in his dreams.

Could the boy possibly be the murderer? Joe doesn’t think so. And he’s determined to prove it.

But first he must separate reality from illusion. To catch this killer, he can’t even trust his own senses. Because the truth is far more terrifying than anyone imagines. And if he doesn’t get someone to believe it soon, Joe and his child will be next....

New York Daily News - Bruno Blumenfeld

Author Roy Johansen moves the story along briskly, sprinkling it with plenty of violence, spookiness and terse, masculine cop banter. Read this one before nightfall.