Norma Lehr, Dark Maiden

Dark Maiden

Norma Lehr

Juno, September 2007, $12.95, 227 pp.

ISBN: 9780809557806

Everyone says that Sheila Miller's son Timmy died of SIDS, but she knows an Asian woman sucked the soul out of her infant. Her husband Karl believes she hallucinated seeing an Asian woman as a means of projecting her feelings of guilt onto someone else; and had her hospitalized for three months. When she gets out they move to Auburn to be near her Aunt Iris. When she arrives there she meets Chad Olson, and they both have immediate feelings for one another, as if they knew one another in a previous life.

Sheila starts hallucinating about a Chinese massacre that happened near the mine on the property. Chad is obsessed about opening up the mine and digging for artifacts. Sheila begins to hear sounds and sees an Asian woman, and she starts blacking out. She doesn't remember what she did, but those around her got hurt or killed. Chad sees a giant fox following Sheila around, but she thinks he is seeing things. Sheila's psychiatrist from the hospital contacts the Wu's and shows them a drawing she made while in the hospital. The elder Wu has an identical amulet, and tells the doctor that Sheila's condition is explained by a supernatural being, and if it is not stopped, Sheila will cease to exist.

DARK MAIDEN is an enthralling and entertaining dark fantasy that will bewitch readers with its hypnotic storyline. Readers will empathize with Sheila, who has to cope with the loss of a child and supernatural attacks. Norma Lehr is a talented writer, who somehow makes the events that take place in this tale as believable, as her characters behave in plausible manners. Once the audience learns what motivates each of them it is exciting reading about their encounter with and how they react to the supernatural.