"dark terse thriller"

French Quarter hotel manager Brian LaPorte and Boston based psychiatrist Rita Brooks meet over the Internet when he showed interest in a dagger she was selling. They exchanged email and started to talk about meeting as the two were falling in love, but Rita delayed this because of her fears of intimate relationships. Not long afterward a car purposely crashes into Rita's vehicle; four days later she comes out of the coma.

Rita sends an email to Brian asking why he stopped communicating with her. Instead of a response, Brian's estranged brother Christopher arrives to learn what Rita's relationship was with his sibling, who apparently tried to kill himself by jumping off a ledge. Rita finds out that Brian is in a coma and believes he "visited" her when they both were comatose to warn her and to insist he was pushed. Rita goes to New Orleans with Mardi Gras just beginning to investigate Brian's fall. Christopher joins up with her although he thinks she is lying; neither expected to fall in love nor anticipate the danger from a seemingly safe source.

This paranormal romantic suspense is a strong tale that hooks readers with the opening confrontation in "Xanadu" until the final climax. Readers know who pushed Brian and the threat to Rita from the beginning but that just adds tension as the audience worries about the stubborn courageous heroine who has no allies even Christopher although she falls in love with him. Readers will appreciate this dark terse thriller.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted September 8, 2004

Summary

On the brink of falling for a man she met on the Internet, Dr. Rita Brooks naively assumes Brian LaPort is everything he says he is...and all that she's hoped for. But before she can come face to face with him, Rita is nearly killed in a horrific accident. Or was it an accident at all?

Emerging at last from a disturbing, vision-plagued coma, Rita is confronted by a stranger who is convinced she knows more than she's telling about her own past-and his brother's. Cryptic e-mail records have led Christopher LaPorte to Rita while Brian lies near death in New Orleans from a suicide attempt. Or was it?

Desperate to unlock her own muddled memories as well as Brian's secrets, Rita returns with Christopher to New Orleans. There, amidst the chaotic revelry of Mardi Gras, she is plunged into a bizarre masquerade where elaborate masks cleverly conceal familiar faces-as well as murderous intent...