Mystique is a gothic romance so bland and watered down it barely qualifies as a gothic or a romance at all. Pleasant when it should be suspenseful, nice when it should be passionate, and not mysterious in the least, it’s the very definition of mediocre.

When Trish Devlin’s sister Debra disappears, Trish travels to the remote Endless Sky resort in search of answers. Debra was a financial reporter pursuing the scoop of a lifetime, an interview with the resort’s owner – and reclusive billionaire – Quinn Stevens. No one knows what the notoriously press-shy Stevens looks like, though it’s rumored that he spends time at the resort disguised as a guest. Trish always shared a telepathic link with her sister, and her inability to sense Debra in her mind makes her fear the worst.

Located deep in the mountains of North Carolina, Endless Sky caters to the rich and powerful. Trish travels to the isolated resort under an assumed name, pretending to be a wealthy heiress. She is greeted at the airport by the resort’s manager, O’Neill, who is probably supposed to come across as mysterious but never really does. There’s an immediate attraction between them, but she doesn’t know whether she can trust him. Luckily, she gets help from another source. The hotel was built on sacred Cherokee ground, and rumor has it that spirits still wander the property. Trish doesn’t believe it, until she begins to hear a ghostly voice in her mind that might lead her to her sister.

That summary may make this story sound interesting, but it really isn’t. The gothic elements are so superficial they amount to little more than window dressing. There are a few forced moments where Trish experiences an eerie feeling, as well as some halfhearted paranormal elements, but the author never musters up any real atmosphere. The story is never suspenseful nor the slightest bit mysterious.

It’s a testament to Charlotte Douglas’s writing skill that the story remains as tolerable as it is, which is far more tolerable than it really has any right to be. Her storytelling is smooth and there’s a warmth to her style that keeps the story pleasant to read. It’s kind of a double-edged sword: a gothic really should be dark instead of pleasant, but at the same time the author’s enjoyable style was the only thing keeping me from falling asleep while reading.

The plot is shallow. The characters are inoffensive, but barely developed, and there’s no real spark to the love story, which, while amiable enough, is never particularly convincing. The front of the book lists fifteen characters, not counting the hero and heroine. That’s a lot of potential suspects, except they aren’t developed at all and the reader learns next to nothing about any of them. At one point, the hero and heroine sit down and list all the potential suspects, and it’s just a blur of names that don’t mean anything to the reader. The villain’s identity is completely arbitrary. If any reader wants to try to figure it out with the hero and heroine, I suggest “eenie meanie miney moe” as a deductive technique. When it comes to solving the mystery, that’s about as good a method as any.

The story isn’t exactly bad, and there was only one thing I actively disliked. I’ll tread carefully to avoid spoiling anything (although I’m not sure it’s possible to spoil something so predictable), but there’s a very obvious development that most readers will deduce, or at least suspect. The fact that the author uses such a predictable development is one thing. But it bothered me to no end that none of the characters were capable of seeing something that they absolutely should have at least suspected too. They come across as fools as a result.

I had high hopes for Harlequin Intrigue’s line of gothics when it first premiered, but I’m close to giving up. So far I’ve read one really good one, a couple that were enjoyable, and a lot of mediocre and lousy ones. Mystique may not be the worst, but that’s about the best I can say about it.