Tested in Fire

Russell’s solid second paranormal Art Medium romance (after The Artist’s Touch) hums smoothly along from the first page to the last. Sarasota artist Stefan Cobbe should be on top of the world: he’s making some money, and his relationship with Luke Morganstern, a dealer of artifacts, couldn’t be better (except for the pesky fact that Luke’s not quite ready to move in with him). But when Luke comes back from a work trip to Italy, he’s suddenly like another person. It soon becomes clear that a misguided ceramics artist has given Luke’s body to her evil partner, Signor Jacques DiBartolo, and swapped Luke into Jacques’s body, which has been incapacitated by a stroke. Luke has to find a way to let Stefan know who he really is—and figure out how to get out of Jacques’s body and back into his own. The body-snatching, while slightly improbable, works well enough, and colorful supporting characters, such as salty psychic Peg and ghost Hootie, have some appeal, as do occasional snarky asides. A hair-raising finale finishes off the tale in fine form. (Apr.)