"paranormal romantic suspense"

Montgomery County, Maryland detective Jack Thornton works three missing people case in which he believes homicides have occurred. Graphic designer Kathryn Reynolds calls the police because her tenant Heather DeYoung has not returned home in a few days. Jack arrives to see if this disappearance is a boyfriend fling or part of his case. When Jack and Kathryn see each other for the first time, neither can breathe. For Jack this is his first real awareness of a woman since a DUI driver killed his wife, leaving him to raise their two preadolescent children on his own. For Kathryn this is a first.

Simon Gwynn uses many aliases and houses to incarcerate his prisoners until he is ready to sacrifice them in an ancient ritual that will soon enable him to control the energy essence Ayindral. He believes Kathryn will prove to be the key offering. As Jack falls in love with Kathryn he feels someone is playing them as puppets in a stage greater than this mortal orb, but what is he to do with the gut feeling that is almost as strong as his need to keep his cherished ones safe.

Though it takes an adjustment, readers will enjoy this paranormal romantic suspense. The story line combines fantasy with a police procedural wrapped inside a romance. The lead couple is a charming pair who must wonder if their love is real or the machinations of Ayindral. Simon is a powerful villain who cleverly hides his true identity while working on his final enchantment. Fans of a different type of tale will want to go to the EDGE OF THE MOON for an enchanting trip.

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted July 25, 2003

His power grows with every sacrifice. Now he has chosen his final victim, Kathryn Reynolds. But she has one avenue of escape, the dream world of agony and ecstasy where she and Jack Thornton must fight for their lives.

Summary

The first person to disappear was an elderly woman. Then it was a child...then a teenage boy. When Kathryn Reynolds's tenant and friend goes missing, she has no idea that her vanishing could be part of a larger, sinister pattern. But the moment she meets Detective Jack Thornton, time seems to stop--literally; The attraction between them is so strong and undeniable, there's almost something dangerous about it...

Jack Thornton had assumed that this was just a routine missing persons report, but there was nothing routine about his response to Kathryn. He's never reacted so quickly or so strongly to any woman before, and the erotic dreams they share threaten to overwhelm his control. But the more he investigates her friend's disappearance, the more uneasy he feels. For he's starting to sense that he and Kathryn are being manipulated by someone...or something. They seem to be playing cat-and-mouse with an unseen enemy--but what Jack doesn't realize is that a killer is on the hunt, and he will stop at nothing to attain his goal. And that the killer is convinced that Kathryn is the key to his dreams of unholy power...