"Terrifying Romantic Suspense"

Someone has been calling Sara Martin late at night and when she answers, they hang up. This has been going on for quite a while but they have become more frequent and seem to be more sinister so her friends talk her into alerting the police for advice. Sara is a free-lance photographer whose husband and little son were killed in an automobile accident two years before. She is still grieving although her friends are always trying to set up dates for her. One of her friends is Bess who is married to a homicide detective and when she goes to see him about the crank calls, she talks instead to his handsome partner, Eric D'Angelo.

Eric takes one look at beautiful Sara and hopes to get to know her better. He offers her advice, sets up her telephone with caller ID and promptly asks her out to Bess and Tony's weekend barbecue. The air sizzles between the pair.

A serial killer is on the loose and has murdered several women in unspeakable brutality and then removing some body parts. His signature is leaving one of Frank Sinatra's romantic record's playing; hence he is named the Sinatra killer. The reader gets an indication that it could be one of Sara's friends and that he is interested in her. Eric and Tony are the lead detectives on the case.

Dee Davis writes a very terrifying romantic suspense in DANCING IN THE DARK. It is hard to understand how a person can present a happy and carefree persona to the world and have such a murderous dark side. Ms. Davis is able to create a fascinating story telling of such a creature and leaving the reader agog and sitting on the edge of her seat. All the secondary characters are very good as well as her pacing and dialog and the romance is hot between the protagonists. Dee Davis is one of my very favorite writers of romantic suspense and she definitely lives up to my expectations in DANCING IN THE DARK.

Reviewed by Marilyn Heyman
Posted August 25, 2003

Read an Excerpt

Dancing in the Dark...a melody for murder

Summary

She was hiding from the future.

Now she'll do anything to live until tomorrow.

Two years after the accidental death of her husband and son, Sara Martin is still wearing her wedding band, using it as a shield against a future without love. Then a persistent prank caller shatters her fragile peace of mind and brings detective Eric D'Angelo into her life. Eric reminds her of the passion she never thought she'd feel again—and the idea of surrendering to it scares her. But Sara will soon discover that she never knew the meaning of the word fear... until now.

Even for a seasoned detective like Eric D'Angelo, the rash of murders haunting the city of Austin seems unbelievably grisly. Still, he's worked enough of these cases to know that eventually even a murderer as meticulous as the Sinatra Killer will make a mistake. Then Sara becomes the madman's target. Between fighting off the ghosts in her past and the monster in her present, Eric is forced to wonder if their hopes of a future together will ever see the light of day...