Judie Aitken, Secret Shadows

Secret Shadows

Judie Aitken

Berkley, Dec 2004, $6.50, 336 pp.

ISBN: 042519941X

Dane White Eagle works undercover for the FBI at the Cold Creek Lakota Reservation in South Dakota trying to find the lab where the Big Elk gang makes dangerous Ecstasy to sell to tribe members. Dane takes his dying thirteen year old sister Kylee to a party in Rapid City, but stops at his home. When he returns he finds Kylee shot with his revolver in her good hand. He quickly takes her to the nearby Pennington General ER where Dr. Claire Colby pronounces Kylee dead.

Dane's FBI partners arrange for him to be convicted of his sister's murder. In prison he befriends Big Elk before being released on a technicality. Big Elk's brother Leland adds Dane to the team at the same time Claire joins the Red Star Clinic on the Cold Creek Reservation. As she and Dane meet outside a medical facility, they fall in love, which places her in danger from the Big Elk gang even as Dane nears achieving his personal objective of finding his sister's killer.

This exhilarating Native American, police-procedural romance is action-packed starring two caring protagonists, especially Dane. His courage is unbelievable not because of risking his life, which he does, but because he knows how much he has hurt his mother yet knows his sacrifice is the right thing. The motive for killing Kylee seems ridiculous even though life is cheap to the culprit. Adding to the fine tale is strong support characters to include the two fed partners, Kylee's dog, Claire's medical friend, Dane's sis, mom and surrogate grandfather, and the comparison between the two gang brothers. Together the cast makes for a strong tale.

Harriet Klausner