"BLOOD GAME," by Iris Johansen, St. Martin's Press, 352 pages, $27.99 (f)

I have, for some time, been a fan of Iris Johansen's Eve Duncan Forensics Thriller series. Johansen has carefully crafted a troubled, emotion-rich woman who has turned to grief over the unsolved killing of her young daughter into a way of helping others by carefully reconstructing a skull's features to help identify children who are long dead and abandoned.

It seems, however, that the vampire madness that has been sweeping America has wandered off the pages of "Twilight" and into "Blood Game," and the result is both odd and disappointing.

In "Blood Game," Eve's not the only one who's having some psychic, paranormal experiences. (Her previous paranormal experiences have centered on seeing and visiting with the spirit of Bonnie, the child she so misses and loves. And it's OK, even comforting.) Her love interest, a detective who's investigating the murder of a Georgia senator's daughter, has developed a disturbing paranormal ability, too.

And there's a bloodsucker here, as well. A chalice, from which the killer apparently drank the victim's blood, was left at the scene of the young woman's murder. And, of course, he also left one in Eve's fridge, because it's becoming increasingly clear in this series that all serial killers are obsessed with this beautiful, tragic woman.

They know who killed the senator's daughter: Kevin Jelak. Duncan hopes to learn that he killed her daughter so that particular quest for justice and closure can finally end.

The high point of the book is Jane, Eve's adopted daughter, who has become a friend, and also a nicely developed and intriguing character herself.

I really wanted to love this book, because I've enjoyed the series, watching Joe and Eve and Jane evolve and grow and be real. It is, perhaps, the lack of the latter in this book that tells me I may be over the series.

Paranormal can be intriguing, or it can seem hokey and stupid. There's a little too much here, with too few of the subtleties I've grown to expect from Johansen. This time, she didn't even bother to finish the reconstruction of "Matt," the child's skull she's working on.

Although this book draws you in and moves fast enough to be a quick read, it's strangely unsatisfying. I hope Johansen can find her way back to what readers loved about Duncan and company. But she's wandered rather far afield.

e-mail: lois@desnews.com