Covenants
Barbara Karmazin
Atlantic Bridge, 2003
ISBN: 1931761744

Needing to pay off her medical school bills, wannabe genetics research scientist Dr. Bridget O'Keefe signs a three contract to work at the Well Baby Clinic in Lacrimas, North Carolina. Lilith Harker takes the newcomer under her wing, providing Bridget with a guard dog and introducing the doctor to her family. That is part of her kin as she fails to present one of her two brothers, Nathaniel, who hides in plain sight from everyone.

During a routine blood sample of Lilith's younger sibling Shiloh, Bridget's genetics expertise enables her to notice anomalies. She forwards a sample to her former teacher at Duke and soon everyone is interested in what appears to be a universal donor of artificial blood. Claiming a ruse, Bridget begins investigating this genetic oddity while forging a deep friendship with her mentor and falling in love with the shadow man.

Combining deep complex relationships inside a terse medical romantic thriller, Barbara Karmazin provides her audience with a powerful tale of the impact of a welcomed outsider on a closely knit Southern family. Bridget is a great protagonist who struggles between a discovery that feels to her like betrayal and joining the group that has welcomed her as a full blooded member. Besides loving the name Lilith Harker, readers, who are unaware of Ms. Karmazin, need to obtain this fine book and DOWN CAME A BLACKBIRD as both are great novels.

Harriet Klausner