"tense and exciting suspense cat and mice thriller"

Near San Francisco, high in a remote mountainous area Colin controls the members of the isolated commune Refuge. In spite of his strict rule, people join to escape from American materialism in order to return to nature. However, the egomaniacal avaricious leader has a different plan for his followers than a simpler lifestyle. He turns The Refuge into a giant cemetery killing everyone except three children, Nick and two sisters Sarah and Aurelie.

Trying to forget the tragedy, the three survivors live quiet lives in Point Judah, Louisiana. However, the mass graves hidden by their remoteness for nearly two decades has just been found. The threesome realizes they will not be able to stay concealed much longer as names are tied to corpses. They also know Colin still waits for their surfacing so he can finish the job he started as he wants no survivors testifying what he did to his cult followers.

The eerie opening sequence stays with readers throughout sort of the way the mass suicides and murders at the Jonesville compound orchestrated by Reverend Jones still haunts people. Thus the plot provides an interesting look at the impact a cult has on escapees long after they have left the compound. Although, why the avaricious Colin needed to come after the three survivors, why his targets surface, and how the small town Bayou residents ignore strangers in their midst seem a bit nebulous, Stella Cameron provides her fans with a tense and exciting suspense cat and mice thriller.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted May 27, 2007

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Summary

Nearly two decades ago a charismatic man called Colin controlled an isolated community hidden in foothills north of San Francisco in what was supposed to be a life free of materialism. Instead, Colin turned The Refuge into a mass grave as he completed a sinister plan to exterminate his followers—all except three children, who slipped through his fingers and escaped with his secrets.

Today, Nick Board and the two beautiful sisters, Sarah and Aurelie, who escaped with him, are living quietly under the radar in the little bayou town of Point Judah, Louisiana. But when the bodies at The Refuge are uncovered, the nightmare of the past forces the friends out into the open. To survive, they must stay one step ahead of the man who has been waiting for them to surface. Driven by greed and anger, he intends them to take his secrets to their graves.