Kat Martin Scent of Roses

Scent of Roses

Kat Martin

Mira, Jul 2006, $7.99

ISBN 0778323269

Following a difficult divorce family counselor Elizabeth Conner returns home to San Pico California. She begins her new practice working with youth. Client Raul enters a nearby drug rehabilitation program at the Harcourt Farm, but asks Elizabeth and instructor Zack Harcourt to see if his sister, Maria Santiago is okay as she suffers nightmares and fears for her unborn, but her spouse Miguel assumes is runaway hormones. Zack especially promises to help Maria.

Elizabeth immediately sees the antipathy shared by Zack and his brother Carson, who runs the family farm, towards one another. Whereas Carson is all charm, Zack is dark and aloof perhaps because of his time in prison for the DUI vehicular accident that crippled their dad. Still he is empathic towards her concerns that something is wrong with the house that Maria resides in as if the place is haunted by a sad spirit. As Zack and Maria work together to solve the mystery of the ghostly girl visitor, they fall in love, but the ghostly investigation leads back to Zack's DUI and the disappearance of a nomadic loner Jake Benson four years ago.

Based loosely on the reported story of a young female ghost haunting the home of a Hispanic couple in San Joaquin Valley, SCENT OF ROSES is a terrific paranormal romantic suspense thriller. The lead pairing make the tale extremely entertaining as the investigation by Zack and Elizabeth take them into the realm of the supernatural on the one hand and into the lethal natural past on the other hand. The lead couple each is flawed from their recent history; she from her divorce and he from the DUI that crippled his dad. Filled with twists that will surprise and delight fans, Kat Martin provides a great amateur sleuth tale.

Harriet Klausner