One of the trends in romance is that many long-term, and successful, romance novelists are moving into the realm of romantic suspense. When done well, these can be brilliant books, very exciting, and filled with passion. Alas, when the suspense borders on the grisly and the romance is sorely lacking, you get something like Ghost Moon.

Olivia Archer Morrison returns to LaAngelle Plantation with her eight-year-old daughter, Sara, wondering just what kind of reception she will get. Olivia was a willful teenager. She left the wealthy Archers – who had raised her after her parents died – to elope with a rodeo cowboy who soon enough left her for another groupie.

Now, humbled by the riches-to-rags turn her life has taken, Olivia gets ready to face, among others, Aunt Callie, whose letter informing Olivia of her illness has prompted Olivia’s return, as well as family patriarch Big John, and her stepcousin, Seth, who tried his best to prevent Olivia from eloping. But as Olivia watches, horrified, Big John collapses upon seeing her and is taken to the hospital.

The years Olivia has spent away from LaAngelle disappear as the family quickly goes back to their old habits, with Seth yelling at Olivia that all she ever does is cause trouble, and frail Aunt Callie being the only one to take the distraught Olivia’s side.

While the family waits for news on Big John’s condition, Olivia and Sara settle into an uneasy routine at LaAngelle. Seth’s daughter Chloe is a spoiled, violent little girl who thinks nothing of taunting shy Sara and making life hell for Seth’s fiancee Mallory, but both Olivia and Sara are intuitive enough to see the pain underneath Chloe’s snotty behavior. While Olivia is trying to fight her attraction to Seth, she also begins to have recurring nightmares about her mother’s death and each time remembers a little bit more of what really happened the night her mother drowned.

There is a serial killer who has been targeting little girls for the past twenty years (I won’t tell you what he does with them) and whose deeds are scattered throughout the book. As Olivia begins to fear for Sara’s safety, as well as her own, all signs point to the fact that the killer is no stranger at all to LaAngelle plantation nor to Olivia herself for that matter.

Now, I enjoy suspense, and that aspect of the book was satisfying enough, but the accompanying element, the romance, has to make sense to me and unfortunately, that did not happen here. Seth Archer is as close to a non-character as I have ever encountered, and those traits he does show do nothing to endear him to the reader. He berates Oliva for causing Big John’s heart attack – his blaming her never makes sense. His relationship with the other characters seems awfully detached. We know he works hard, continually ignores his love-starved daughter, receives Mallory’s affectionate caresses, and bullies his mother into resting. Through all this, I never got a real sense of who Seth was, or why Olivia was so attracted to him, other than his physical attributes.

Olivia is far easier to like up until she begins losing IQ points every time she thinks of Seth, and Seth’s flat abdomen, and Seth’s strong shoulders, etc. She is a protective and affectionate mother to Sara, feeling the shame of her daughter’s threadbare clothes and how Sara suffers in comparison to Chloe’s perfect appearance. Once Olivia starts telling herself (over and over and over) that she will not fall in love with Seth, however, and begins to play games with a sweet man who likes her very much, I started losing my patience with her, and ended up wishing that Seth had married poor Mallory, who really tried her best to connect with demon-child Chloe.

The most disconcerting moment in the book happens when Seth and Olivia have sex for the first time – one hour after his mother’s death. Not only that, but then Seth thanks Olivia for helping him get through the night, and Olivia responds in kind, telling him that she is glad she could help. This scene pretty much did away with any illusion of romance being present in this book, and set the tone for remainder of the bland relationship between Seth and Olivia.

Ghost Moon features taut thrills, but not much in the way of characterization. And, sporting a hefty price tag, I can’t recommend it to even staunch Robards’ fans. I can recommend, however, that you find a copy of Karen Robards’ earlier Walking After Midnight if you want to read a terrific novel of both suspense and romance.