What do you think?
Rate this book
Being a telepath, I should have seen the hell I was getting myself into…
I used to be one of the most powerful telepaths in the guild. That was before my drug addiction and before they kicked me out. But I'm not a bad guy. Now I help the Atlanta PD solve murders. And even though there are only a few people I call friends, I'd do most anything to keep their trust.
So when a judge asks me to help investigate a missing college kid, I'm down for it. No questions asked. No problem. But in this dark world, things are never easy and a favor is never just a favor. Turns out, politicians don’t like being murder suspects. And it's bad to anger someone with more power than you. I thought I had nothing to lose... I was wrong.
I used to be one of the most powerful telepaths in the guild. That was before my drug addiction and before they kicked me out. But I'm not a bad guy. Now I help the Atlanta PD solve murders. And even though there are only a few people I call friends, I'd do most anything to keep their trust.
So when a judge asks me to help investigate a missing college kid, I'm down for it. No questions asked. No problem. But in this dark world, things are never easy and a favor is never just a favor. Turns out, politicians don’t like being murder suspects. And it's bad to anger someone with more power than you. I thought I had nothing to lose... I was wrong.
56 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 5, 2013
15 people are currently reading
374 people want to read
About the author
Alex Hughes
13 books417 followersAlex Hughes was born in Savannah, GA and moved to the south Atlanta area when she was eight years old. Shortly thereafter, her grandfather handed her a copy of Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonrider series, and a lifelong obsession with scifi was born.
Alex is a graduate of the prestigious Odyssey Writing Workshop and a Semi-Finalist in the 2011 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards. Her short pieces are published in several markets including EveryDay Fiction, Thunder on the Battlefield and White Cat Magazine.
Alex’s work is smart, dark, adventurous, and a little funny, with a emphasis on great characters and interesting worlds. She gets her inspiration from history (she majored with a European history focus in college), family members, and headlines, as well as whatever book she has in her hand. Lately she’s been reading neuroscience books; the brain’s a cool, cool place and the mind even more so.
An avid cook and foodie, Alex loves great food of any stripe – even better if she can figure out how to put it together. Great food is like a great book; it has lots of layers that work together beautifully, and the result is delicious and harmonious. She’s working on figuring out Indian food right now – suggestions welcome!
Alex loves swing dancing, tetris, music of all kinds, and has been known to get into long conversations with total strangers at restaurants about the Food Network, much to the embarrassment of her sister. She can also balance a spoon on her nose while crossing her eyes, and talk for hours about absolutely nothing.
Alex is a graduate of the prestigious Odyssey Writing Workshop and a Semi-Finalist in the 2011 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards. Her short pieces are published in several markets including EveryDay Fiction, Thunder on the Battlefield and White Cat Magazine.
Alex’s work is smart, dark, adventurous, and a little funny, with a emphasis on great characters and interesting worlds. She gets her inspiration from history (she majored with a European history focus in college), family members, and headlines, as well as whatever book she has in her hand. Lately she’s been reading neuroscience books; the brain’s a cool, cool place and the mind even more so.
An avid cook and foodie, Alex loves great food of any stripe – even better if she can figure out how to put it together. Great food is like a great book; it has lots of layers that work together beautifully, and the result is delicious and harmonious. She’s working on figuring out Indian food right now – suggestions welcome!
Alex loves swing dancing, tetris, music of all kinds, and has been known to get into long conversations with total strangers at restaurants about the Food Network, much to the embarrassment of her sister. She can also balance a spoon on her nose while crossing her eyes, and talk for hours about absolutely nothing.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
January 28, 2018
A very nice short story linking ## 1 & 2 in this series.
Q:
I wouldn’t be surprised if a huge concrete cover sealed up the building’s front every night; after the Tech Wars, people got paranoid, and for good reason. Why a politician had chosen this particular building with all its paranoia rather than the newer grown-crystal open buildings told me something about his character. (c)
Q:
I wouldn’t be surprised if a huge concrete cover sealed up the building’s front every night; after the Tech Wars, people got paranoid, and for good reason. Why a politician had chosen this particular building with all its paranoia rather than the newer grown-crystal open buildings told me something about his character. (c)
April 6, 2015
I forgot how obnoxious people around Adam are. Every single one of them. I don't get what he sees in Cherubino, she is so ungrateful one needs to think of a new term for it. The way people act around him makes this a bit depressing to read.
I get he made mistakes in the past, but give a guy a break. A judge is sort of blackmailing him to find his grandson or he will rethink Adam's own sentence. Adam has a huge problem - his telepathy seems to be gone. There is a pretty good twist I did not expect in the end.
This time people say his name more than once though.
I am probably going to read the next book in the series, but I wish Cherubino wouldn't be in it. It's still a promising and interesting world.
I get he made mistakes in the past, but give a guy a break. A judge is sort of blackmailing him to find his grandson or he will rethink Adam's own sentence. Adam has a huge problem - his telepathy seems to be gone. There is a pretty good twist I did not expect in the end.
This time people say his name more than once though.
I am probably going to read the next book in the series, but I wish Cherubino wouldn't be in it. It's still a promising and interesting world.
January 31, 2016
This is a novella set shortly after the events of the previous book where the hero is suffering what he fears will be the permanent loss of his abilities.
He investigates the disappearance and murder of a young college student and is basically thrown into it on his own as his partner is take elsewhere on other work. Without his abilities, he's forced to rely on his intelligence and experience and isn't convinced of the use of either.
He investigates the disappearance and murder of a young college student and is basically thrown into it on his own as his partner is take elsewhere on other work. Without his abilities, he's forced to rely on his intelligence and experience and isn't convinced of the use of either.
November 25, 2016
Now I have to catch up with this series!
January 8, 2023
A nice addition to the Mindspace universe. I hadn't read this on earlier runs through the series and it was nice to get new content. The story is tight, well paced with a nice twist. And nice to see our protagonist not getting utterly shit on by everyone around him (referring to his treatment in Clean).
February 14, 2018
I probably shouldn't have rushed through this or read it when I was so tired. I don't actually recall much.... I did enjoy it and liked that we learned how Adam pissed off granny, but meh.
March 3, 2018
I enjoyed this novella, which had a good plot with resolution, and I think fans of the main character will also enjoy the story. It's not critical to read it in the series order.
August 26, 2018
3.5* audio
October 23, 2018
3.5/5. A nice short story with the main characters from the first book it branches together the first book and the start of the second book.
March 8, 2019
Pretty good series about a high-powered telepath and recovering addict who works for the police and is more or less trying to stay clean.
October 22, 2016
Yeah, if Adam just did that mind twist to make Bradley unconscious, he wouldn't have been burnt out at all. Tsk.
July 14, 2014
This is 1.5 in the Mindspace Investigations science fiction mystery series and revolving around Adam.
My Take
It's an interesting series so far with a recovering drug addicted telepath who works for the police in a computer-phobic country.
In this one, it's a slice of Adam's life, and Hughes works it well, making us feel how helpless Adam feels without his telepathy. I'm not sure if I didn't "feel" the fear of it because I know the story continues, and I believe he must recover or if Hughes simply didn't show that fear.
It's a twisty little case Hughes uses to demonstrate how the lack of his telepathy affects Adam; I was surprised that Adam didn't wonder how anyone survived without it or how detectives closed cases without that boost.
Sounds like he's making a bit of progress with Cherabino, although lunch with Nonna is a disaster.
The Story
A good kid, on track at school, a promising internship, a judge's grandson, and now he's missing. And Adam owes his grandfather big time. A little extra incentive is that the judge will pull Adam back into the system if he doesn't find out what happened to him. In under a week. No pressure.
Without his telepathy, Adam is blind and will have to rely upon everyday brain power.
The Characters
His telepathy burnt out after events in Clean , 1, and with only a sliver connecting his mind to Cherabino's, Adam, a supposed Level Eight telepath consultant for the De Kalb County police and a recovering drug addict, is struggling with being "blind". Swartz is his Narcotics Anonymous sponsor.
Homicide Detective Isabelle Cherabino is liable for him. Her grandmother, Nonna, invites Adam for lunch. Johnny Kubrick is undercover at the Plantation, and desperately wants Adam to back off until his deal goes down. He also has a history with Cherabino.
Jamal is a crime scene tech. Freeman is another detective. Lieutenant Maria Paulsen is Adam's boss. Bellury seems to be one of the few cops who are okay with Adam. Andrew specializes in accounting issues and has a small Gift. Clark is part of the interrogation department and hates Adam. Gayle is the medical examiner.
Judge Datini presided over Adam's trials, and Adam owes him, big time for what he's done. Raymond is the judge's missing grandson, who's been working as an unpaid intern for a state senator. George Babel is his roommate, says Oden is bad news. George's dad is CEO at Coca Cola.
State Senator Billy Oden the Incorruptible has a rep to lose. Rafael Mantega is Oden's campaign manager.
The Tech Wars happened 60 years ago when superviruses ran rampant and almost destroyed the world. Mindspace seems to be the telepathic mind.
The Cover
The cover is a metaphor for how Adam feels, that sense of vertigo, of being overwhelmed with this new perspective on life as the buildings in this electric cityscape loom over him.
The title is what's happening everywhere, with a Payoff being made left, right, and center.
My Take
It's an interesting series so far with a recovering drug addicted telepath who works for the police in a computer-phobic country.
In this one, it's a slice of Adam's life, and Hughes works it well, making us feel how helpless Adam feels without his telepathy. I'm not sure if I didn't "feel" the fear of it because I know the story continues, and I believe he must recover or if Hughes simply didn't show that fear.
It's a twisty little case Hughes uses to demonstrate how the lack of his telepathy affects Adam; I was surprised that Adam didn't wonder how anyone survived without it or how detectives closed cases without that boost.
Sounds like he's making a bit of progress with Cherabino, although lunch with Nonna is a disaster.
The Story
A good kid, on track at school, a promising internship, a judge's grandson, and now he's missing. And Adam owes his grandfather big time. A little extra incentive is that the judge will pull Adam back into the system if he doesn't find out what happened to him. In under a week. No pressure.
Without his telepathy, Adam is blind and will have to rely upon everyday brain power.
The Characters
His telepathy burnt out after events in Clean , 1, and with only a sliver connecting his mind to Cherabino's, Adam, a supposed Level Eight telepath consultant for the De Kalb County police and a recovering drug addict, is struggling with being "blind". Swartz is his Narcotics Anonymous sponsor.
Homicide Detective Isabelle Cherabino is liable for him. Her grandmother, Nonna, invites Adam for lunch. Johnny Kubrick is undercover at the Plantation, and desperately wants Adam to back off until his deal goes down. He also has a history with Cherabino.
Jamal is a crime scene tech. Freeman is another detective. Lieutenant Maria Paulsen is Adam's boss. Bellury seems to be one of the few cops who are okay with Adam. Andrew specializes in accounting issues and has a small Gift. Clark is part of the interrogation department and hates Adam. Gayle is the medical examiner.
Judge Datini presided over Adam's trials, and Adam owes him, big time for what he's done. Raymond is the judge's missing grandson, who's been working as an unpaid intern for a state senator. George Babel is his roommate, says Oden is bad news. George's dad is CEO at Coca Cola.
State Senator Billy Oden the Incorruptible has a rep to lose. Rafael Mantega is Oden's campaign manager.
The Tech Wars happened 60 years ago when superviruses ran rampant and almost destroyed the world. Mindspace seems to be the telepathic mind.
The Cover
The cover is a metaphor for how Adam feels, that sense of vertigo, of being overwhelmed with this new perspective on life as the buildings in this electric cityscape loom over him.
The title is what's happening everywhere, with a Payoff being made left, right, and center.
January 16, 2024
3.5 stars
The action was really minor, but the pacing was okay. The detective work was fine but the plot and the various components including the solution were unoriginal.
Because the MC had lost his telepathic abilities, this read more like a standard mystery—albeit in a future universe—than a novel starring a psychic. His whining about not having his powers got old fast; him finally asking himself whether this horribleness was how the normals always felt was judgey. I couldn’t figure out if we were supposed to dislike him, see this as indicative of how out of touch he was, or feel sorry for him. After the first few pages, I definitely didn’t feel the latter. I think I’d feel more sorry for him if he emphasized more what he was lacking that the telepathy took the place of. For example, at one point he said he wasn’t a detective. I wanted more of that kind of things. But even that example wasn’t that great because he acted as one in his job, just going at it from the telepathic side. At least at the end we learned what one of the drawbacks to having telepathy can be, not that he cared.
The sheer number of unnecessary metaphors was driving me crazy, like having to pick up all the balls on a golf practice range.
The action was really minor, but the pacing was okay. The detective work was fine but the plot and the various components including the solution were unoriginal.
Because the MC had lost his telepathic abilities, this read more like a standard mystery—albeit in a future universe—than a novel starring a psychic. His whining about not having his powers got old fast; him finally asking himself whether this horribleness was how the normals always felt was judgey. I couldn’t figure out if we were supposed to dislike him, see this as indicative of how out of touch he was, or feel sorry for him. After the first few pages, I definitely didn’t feel the latter. I think I’d feel more sorry for him if he emphasized more what he was lacking that the telepathy took the place of. For example, at one point he said he wasn’t a detective. I wanted more of that kind of things. But even that example wasn’t that great because he acted as one in his job, just going at it from the telepathic side. At least at the end we learned what one of the drawbacks to having telepathy can be, not that he cared.
The sheer number of unnecessary metaphors was driving me crazy, like having to pick up all the balls on a golf practice range.
December 8, 2013
A nice interlude b/w Clean and Sharp. Getting more of a sense of the main character, a little more of his past. The interaction between him and Cherabino are as tense as ever and continue where they left off in Clean. I'm liking this character more and more. It's his struggle to do what's right, no matter what it costs him. And it often costs him a lot. Makes you hope he'll catch a break someday. Maybe on Sharp. We'll see. Going straight on to Sharp!
March 15, 2014
I didn't realize this came out until much later after I read the first book. This does deal with things that happened in the first book but it also doesn't ruin the action that happened there if someone reads this first. I like that this is in the future but due to the Tech wars some things are the same as now and other things are advanced. I also have a soft spot for SF mysteries and it is nice having another series to read. A nice way to hook readers of police mysteries if you know someone out there that reads them.
December 6, 2014
Deaf to mindspace, that's Adam's condition following the case in Clean. He still tries to use his interrogation skills and tries to cover his inability to read anybody's mind. Everybody seems to assume he's using his skills. The work goes on. New cases come in including a dead body, the grandson of the judge who handled Adam's drug case.
Highly Recommended I'm hooked. The next book in the series is already downloaded to the Nook.
Highly Recommended I'm hooked. The next book in the series is already downloaded to the Nook.
May 5, 2016
Payoff is a well written sequel after the Clean. Adam is in trouble because his Telepathy isn't jet back and he didn't share that part with anyone. I really enjoyed Adam's developing as a character. He is getting emotionally and mentally stronger. We didn't know him as a character before his downfall, but now he is starting from the bottom to be a better person. That's why I like this series, at least so far. I'm definitely looking forward to Sharp.
July 13, 2013
Amazing novella between Clean and Sharp. The plot was tight and fast-paced. But I've gotta say that I figured out the mystery quite early in the story. It was interesting to see how Adam solved cases like a normal person without telepathy. An interesting alternative view. I am super happy that he is getting back his telepathy and am super looking forward to reading the next book in the series.
November 18, 2014
What a treat, Payoff gives us a glimpse of how Adam survived during his recovery from overextending his telepathy. I loved how he tried to use other talents to figure out the case. The realization of how it feels to be human without mental abilities. The interactions between him and Cherabino were wonderful. This is a really great series and I would say to any fans this is a must-read treat!
December 31, 2015
2.5 stars - I was sort of ambivalent about the first book, but it ended well so I decided to give this short a try and it was very repetitious in the angst department - I did this in audio and only have about ten minutes left but I don't have a driving need to finish. I did finish but probably won't continue unless they go on Sa!e.
April 6, 2014
I needed an Adam fix and could not wait til April 2. Payoff shows Adam struggling to function as a headblind person, using his skills to solve a case, and facing more personal demons. I enjoyed Payoff, and cannot wait until Sharp is out.
August 28, 2013
I love this little episode between Clean and Sharp. It was a quick little story that fit well between the two novels, now that I've also finished Sharp. I really love this author, and I can't wait until the next book arrives!
November 19, 2014
This was a pretty good filler story between the first and second books. I'm looking forward to reading the 2nd full book; the characters have really grown on me, even though the overall setting is somewhat depressing.
January 15, 2015
A novella set in the Mindspace universe, between novel 1 and novel 2. A decent short piece, with a mystery to solve and (of course) tension between Adam and Cherabino, not to mention Adam and the rest of the world.
April 28, 2015
Enjoying this series, though this entry as a novelette is too short to get very involved in the story. Am looking forward to reading the next novel. A plus, though, it was a free download from the library.
April 15, 2018
This was a novella that came between the first and second books. It also explained a little that I was slightly confused about when I read the second book before this one.
I like this series. I will continue one with this one.
I like this series. I will continue one with this one.
March 10, 2013
The best review I can give this novella is the simplest - it made me remember how much I wanted to read the next book in the series!
March 17, 2013
This a nice little story to bridge the gap between the first two books of the series. Nothing big or specatcular, but good.
May 13, 2013
Extra 1/2 star.
July 27, 2013
Fun but not enjoying the fact that our hero is a strong telepath whose telepathy isn't working...
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews