Doranna Durgin, Survival Instinct

Survival Instinct

Doranna Durgin

Silhouette Bombshell, April 2006, $4.99

ISBN: 0373513992

Karin Sommers decides to go straight after a life as a con artist, but to succeed she knows she must flee her stepfather. She also realizes she needs help, so she turns to her half-sister Ellen, who gladly assists her beloved sibling. Alas, a happy ending escapes them when Ellen dies in a car accident.

Karin becomes Ellen to hide from her stepfather, and to avoid arrest as there is now a warrant out on her. One year later investigator Dave Hunter finds her, and thinking she is Ellen, demands she help him locate an abducted boy snatched by her former boyfriend, a probable child molester. Karin agrees to help him, even though it risks her cover. However, what she fears most is her attraction to the obviously intelligent detective, who if she reveals the truth will surely take her in as he is ethical by the book.

The key to this action-packed thriller is Karin who feels guilt over Ellen's death, but shock once she learns her half-sister, whom she placed on a pedestal, had some dark secrets too. While the plot focuses on a desperate attempt to rescue the child, and to a degree on the attraction between the sleuth and the woman in hiding, the tale's refreshing angle is the emotions of the heroine. Karin is a terrific center to an action-packed thriller.