Melanie Casey's debut novel, Hindsight, has been on my wishlist since its release. It is the first book in a series to feature Cass Lehman, a woman with the psychic gift of retrocognition, and South Australian police detective, Ed Dyson.

For almost a decade, Cass Lehman has lived more or less like a recluse in the home she shares with her mother and grandmother. Travel is difficult when her gift of retrocognition means that when she passes over a place where someone has died in a violent or traumatic manner, Cass experiences their final horrifying moments. Now twenty eight and tired of her self imposed exile, Cass decides it is time to confront her demons and takes a huge risk by offering her services to the local police department after a woman is found murdered in an alleyway. The lead detective on the case, Ed Dyson, is scornful until Cass makes the connection between a handful of missing person cases and murders that has eluded Dyson for years, and the pair find themselves on the trail of a serial killer.

Cass's ability is intriguing, and can be viewed as both a gift and a curse. She pays a high price for her 'gift', since she not only sees and hears what the victims experienced but also feels the physical pain and emotional trauma they suffered. I really like that Cass's talent isn't always useful, since Cass can only see what the victim saw in their last moments when the killer strikes from behind, for example, she isn't able to offer much to a investigation.

The initial partnership between Cass and Ed is not an easy one. Ed is still struggling with the unsolved disappearance of his pregnant wife two years previously and doesn't have the patience to humour Cass given his skepticism. Cass resents Ed's easy dismissal of her, both because she believes she can help and because she is attracted to the detective.

Casey alternates between the first person perspective of Cass and third person perspectives from Ed, and the killer the pair are hunting. It's an unusual narrative split but works well and I barely noticed the transitions. The plot is well crafted, and crucially Casey doesn't allow the paranormal element to overwhelm the structure of a good crime novel. The pacing of the story is good with a tense, and somewhat gruesome, climatic ending that threatens the lives of both the protagonists.

Combining crime fiction with an interesting paranormal element and a touch of romance, I really enjoyed reading Hindsight. I'd particularly recommend it those who find the genre mix appealing and who might have liked Charlaine Harris's Harper Connelly series. I'm looking forward to following Hindsight up with Casey's second book, Craven.