"classic style horror tale with medical thriller and romantic suspense elements"

Veterinarian Markie Cross loves her living and working on the US Caribbean Island Territory of San Martin. Her dog Kato begins acting strange and many of the canines bark as if they are warning their owners to beware of something evil. Kato makes Markie take him out for a walk and stops at the house of a neighbor Carter Shippey. The healthy man suddenly dies, but medical examiner Dr. Declan Quinn finds something strange with the corpse when he examines it. The man's bones dissolved turning to jelly. Not long afterward, his healthy wife succumbs too.

CDC is called in as biohazard level 4 is provoked quarantining the island. No one knows what could have caused the deaths that defy logic. Others die too with only the dogs seemingly aware of what is going on. Soon Kato and Markie connect on some mystical level that allows them to mentally communicate and the human falls in love with her other male companion Declan, but will they be enough to stop a murderess released from beyond the grave?

This tale is more a classic style horror tale, but contains medical thriller and romantic suspense elements that enhance the plot. The story line smoothly changes from a medical enigma into a from the grave killer tale. Though the Kato-Markie connection adds a fascinating fantasy element that seems over the edge, readers will find SOMETHING DEADLY an interesting thriller.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted December 8, 2003