"gritty, realistic, unforgettable!"

Just in time for Summer reads, here is a chance to find some new voices you might have missed. One of the best finds is Judie Aitken. She is an extremely talented writer, drawing strongly on her Native American background. It's through this pride, this passion she is able to write vivid books with strong Lakota backgrounds that carry the reader into a brilliantly envisioned world of the Lakota Indian Reservation. Secret Shadows was a 2004 Reviewers International Award Winner, as well as winning other awards for her books, Love Beyond Time, A Place Called Hope and Distant Echoes. Once you read one of her books you will be scrambling to get the others.

In Secret Shadows, Dane White Eagle is an undercover FBI agent. He is hot on the trail of drug dealers using the Lakota Reservation as a cover for other dirty dealings. Dane is furious they're peddling the stuff to his people and wishes to stop it. As he is drawing nearer to the Ecstasy dealers, they move to put a stop to his meddling. Dane returns home to find his 13-year-olds sister, who was dying of cancer, shot with his gun.

Dr. Claire Colby is covering the graveyard shift at the emergency room when Dane's sisters is rushed there. She is the one who pronounces her dead. Dane is arrested for the sister's death and Claire is called to testify against him. With the strength of her testimony Dane is sent to prison. Their paths cross again as Dane is knifed by an inmate and she must save him. Later, after Claire takes a job on the Cold Creek Lakota Reservation, she is surprised to learn Dane is there. He has been freed on a technicality.

Dane is more determined than ever to find the drug lab and the true killers of his sister. Claire becomes involved with Dane's investigation, and finds herself falling for the brooding man, even though she is not certain whether he is innocent or not. Still, she cannot deny the dreams she has begun to have, begun to share with Dane. As Dane and Claire fight to end this evil plaguing the reservation, they cannot fight the passions that arise between them.

The book is simply unforgettable. I read hundreds of books each year, and maybe only a dozen will stay in my heart and mind, that ten years later I will touch the spine of that book and recall all the details so vividly. Secret Shadows is just that sort of a book. Aitken is just not a well-researched writer, she is a Native America, proud of her heritage and it's that power that gives her the magic ability to pen such strong tales depicting the beauty and grim realities of the reservation and the people who have often been denied their rights, their voice. Her prose are fluid, moving the reader through the mystery, the passion.

So take advantage of Berkley Summer push to introduce you to new writers. It's just doesn't get any better than this.

Reviewed by DeborahAnne MacGillivray
Posted July 1, 2005

Summary

What happens when undercover FBI agent Dane White Eagle is

What happens when beautiful trauma doctor Claire Colby is the best witness against Dane that the prosecuting attorney has?

Hiding his work on a drug sting with the FBI from his friends and family isn't the most difficult thing Dane White Eagle has done. But, allowing himself to be convicted for his twelve-year old sister's murder and falling in love with the woman who helped put him in prison certainly is.

As Assistant Director of the Trauma Department at Pennington Hospital, Dr. Claire Colby has dedicated her life to healing the sick and wounded. She never imagined that learning to trust her heart and falling in love with Dane White Eagle, a convicted murderer from Cold Creek Reservation, would be the most magnificent healing of all.