Heart of Stone
C.E. Murphy
Luna, Nov 2007, $14.95
ISBN 9780373802920

Manhattan attorney Margrit Knight is jogging in Central Park when she stumbles onto a dying woman. Nearby is a male who is not quite a man and Margrit's first reaction is he is the murderer. He says he is Alban, a gargoyle and insists he did not kill the female and pleads with Margrit to help find who did. Although her legal training sets off alarms to beware and not trust him, her instincts tell her to help him.

As they begin to work together to uncover the identity of the killer who he fears is one of his race, he explains he is a gargoyle, a species that have lived on the edge of human civilizations for millennium. However, as they dig deeper, Margrit finds herself feeling like Alice falling through the rabbit's hole as the paranormal proves genuine and every step she takes could prove her last.

HEART OF STONE is a fabulous romantic fantasy whodunit starring an incredible heroine who overwhelms the rest of the cast including her rock hard companion. The story line is fast-paced but totally driven by the once skeptical now believing Margrit who insists she is a lawyer not a paranormal sleuth or a knight rescuing the gargoyle in distress, but as she falls in love she wonders if a man of stone can have a heart (other parts she assumes are naturally hardened).

Harriet Klausner