Book Review – Camp Hell (PsyCop 5) by Jordan Castillo Price

Book Blurb:

Victor Bayne honed his dubious psychic skills at one of the first psych training facilities in the country, Heliotrope Station, otherwise known as Camp Hell to the psychics who’ve been guests behind its razorwire fence. 

Vic discovered that none of the people he remembers from Camp Hell can be found online, and there’s no mention of Heliotrope Station itself, either. Someone’s gone through a lot of trouble to bury the past. But who? 

Book Review

I’ve read Camp Hell by Jordan Castillo Price several times, and I think it is my favorite of the PsyCop books in the series. It is Number 5, and coincidentally, the first longer length PsyCop novel because 1-4 were all shorter in length and were later released as 2 book collections (iykyk).

Camp Hell is my favorite because Victor rediscovers parts of himself that he had apparently lost. This book also reveals the agency that has been playing Big Brother to Vic’s life and activities: the FPMP, aka the Federal Psychic Monitoring Program. 

It is a story not only of a murder mystery that he and his NP partner, Zig, are unraveling at a hospital, but he is also grappling with the realization that he has forgotten a lot of his personal history. There are times when we have blocked out portions of our lives because they were unpleasant or traumatic. This character flaw makes Vic so relatable, and we get to join him on his journey of self-discovery. 

When he reconnects with the one person from Heliotrope Station he could find, they help him reach back into his subconscious. Is it tricky that the person digging into his psyche is his old boyfriend from his Camp Hell days? Maybe. Does it help that Stefan (now known as Steven) has changed in appearance, but Vic is pretty much as good-looking as ever? Probably.

For someone who is having moments of crisis about his appearance, Vic wonders if he is enough to keep Jacob happy. It is intriguing to see him develop through his regressive hypnosis sessions. 

Jacob and Vic are sexy as a couple, and the chemistry between them, as always, is extra hot in this book, too. Jacob flexes his caveman muscles and shows his jealous side several times, when Vic visits Crash, and after meeting Vic’s old boyfriend, Stefan, who has been getting psychic with Vic.

Jacob has his chance to lend a hand by helping Vic wade through the paperwork he gets to dig into the true nature of the Heliotrope Station training. The struggle showcases just why their relationship seems fated, and how they continue to make it work. 

Vic not only begins to suspect that the pieces of his history that he had forgotten hold the key to him getting a more tactical hold on his talent, but he also begins to suspect that Jacob has some talents too, not just in his pants. When he has the opportunity to assist Vic in exorcising a ghost, they show that their compatibility extends beyond their personal life, but into their professional life, even if they will never be partnered up together officially in the CPD (Chicago Police Dept).

 We see a lot of Crash in this book, which is fun because Crash probably has the hots for Vic, even if he isn’t as into Jacob as he used to be. I think he enjoys messing with Vic just to piss Jacob off. 

Still my favorite in the series after many readings, it is a solid 5 stars. 

Camp Hell (PsyCop Novel 5) by Jordan Castillo Price is available from Amazon and other retailers.