I enjoy reading romantic suspense, but it's very rare that a book makes me as uneasy as the first half of this one did. Holly Lisle has turned out a tense, supernatural-tinged mystery sure to keep those with vivid imaginations up long past bedtime. The first half of this book was a tightly written thrill ride that made me almost certain it was a keeper. Things got a little more predictable in the second half, but this book is still better than most of the romantic suspense I read recently.
Dia Courvant is a Florida paramedic who answers what seems to be a grisly, but all too frequent type of call. A multi-car accident has caused multiple injuries on a local highway, and her entire team is kept busy responding. However, the presence of Detective Brig Hafferty instead of the usual Highway Patrol officers tells Dia that all is not as it seems as this particular crash scene.
Brig is investigating a series of crashes caused by explosives on the roadways. He is convinced that a serial bomber is at work, and is determined to catch him before more people are injured or killed. When he sees Dia working the crash scene, he is impressed with her calm competence and, as he interviews her and the other paramedics, he finds himself very attracted.
Unknown to Brig, Dia has a tragedy in her past. Her husband, another paramedic, died four years earlier in a crashed ambulance and now, not only has a series of purposeful car crashes brought Brig into Dia's life, she has also found herself the victim of a stalker who leaves her flowers and notes, and in some cases, messages that appear to come from beyond the grave. These things have made Dia uneasy and though she is inclined to trust Brig for protection, she is a little unsure about how to handle his obvious interest in her.
Lisle's supernatural-tinged thriller is more tightly written than most romantic suspense I have read. Though it is obvious after the first few chapters that the serial bomber and Dia's stalker have more than a few things in common, enough of the details remain shrouded in mystery to keep readers turning pages and guessing at the solution to the puzzle. Lisle does a good job of throwing out bits of information as the story unfolds without tipping her hand too much.
The author also excels at setting a mood. Her descriptions of how Dia's stalker gets into her house and into her life are genuinely creepy. As I read the first half of this book, I felt that I was holding a keeper in my hands. However, in the second half of the book, the story is still a good read, but somehow the balance between romance and mystery falls apart in places and the author does not maintain the tension quite so effortlessly as she did throughout the first part of the novel. That slight loss of pacing and mood, as well as the truly outlandish names employed for the leads were my only major quibbles with the book, though.
Lisle does a good job of setting up a memorable romantic suspense novel and she also manages to create a world of believable characters most readers will enjoy. The ending of the book is not perfect, but it's still a cut above a lot of what is out there. And the first half of the book? A very fun read, and one that will give you the creeps if you're reading in the evening at home alone.
Sensuality: Warm
Publication Date: 2007
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