Cally Lazar, the intuitive energy healer of Claire Daniels’ previous two mysteries, BODY OF INTUITION and STRANGLED INTUITION, returns for a third trip into the investigator’s shoes.  This time, with CRUEL AND UNUSUAL INTUITION, Cally is joined by an eclectic mixture of additional energy healers at an intensive workshop, set up by Dr. Aurora Hart, the leader of the Chakra Commitment movement.

Dr. Hart is a celebrity in energy healing on the level of a Martha Stewart in homemaking or Laura Schlesinger in self-help.  She put on workshops, sells books, and makes a lot of money through her charisma and knowledge of chakras.  Her personality, though, and her confrontational manner of exposing peoples’ secrets put her at odds with those she is supposed to help.  Even with the intensive Cally and the others attend, her acerbic manner offends even them, making the workshop more of drill all loathe than any actual healing process to embrace.

Dr. Hart believes her confrontational technique is the best way to force people to face their problems.  Disaster strikes when her way of alienating everyone reaps a set of consequences never expected – her death, on the stage she created for herself, before all those patrons who came to hear her speak of the healing knowledge she purported.

The intuitive energy healing that author Claire Daniels details here, in greater abundance than was featured in her previous book, STRANGLED INTUITION, I readily admit I know nothing outside of what I have read in the two books.  In STRANGLED INTUITION, I was hoping to see Cally Lazar employ it more in the solving of the crime; here in CRUEL AND UNUSUAL INTUITION, it seemed to be used too much, at the expense of the mystery needing to be solved.

While this is not a bad thing by any means – it enabled a deeper look (and, at times, humorous gaze) into that world of various healing techniques; I understood the practice better than I did; and the story then carried a diversity of characters reminiscent of any classic Agatha Christie tale.  However, I felt such character development took too long to get established, eroding the preeminence of Dr. Hart’s death. 

The same happened to the character of Cally Lazar.  While she was prominent in STRANGLED INTUITION; here she recedes into the background (more as narrator, than star) with the other healers -- just one of many -- never stepping forward into the same level of prominence.

It caused me to consider the last few seasons of “The Cosby Show”.  Bill Cosby’s character, which began as the initial thrust of the show’s success, became just another character in a cast of many – diminishing the show’s allure.

Such is what happened here to Cally Lazar.  Every story should be geared around her, with her family and Warren Kapp as support, and new characters as suspects; but there is too little involvement from Cally’s family and too few opportunities for Cally’s personality to shine.

Those who know something of the intuitive healing practice, as well as those who have read the previous two Cally Lazar mysteries, will enjoy CRUEL AND UNUSUAL INTUITION.  Personally, I would have liked to have seen the mystery develop along with the characters; for once I understood who lived behind every name, the mystery of who killed Dr. Hart became a simply waiting around for the killer to reveal themself.

Buy CRUEL AND UNUSUAL INTUITION is you want a new adventure with Cally Lazar; but buy STRANGLED INTUITION, or reread it a second time, if you want a solid mystery to unravel.