Pamela Palmer, The Dark Gate

The Dark Gate

Pamela Palmer

Silhouette Nocturne, March 2007, $5.25, 304 pp.

ISBN 0373617607

Metropolitan Police Detective Jack Hallihan is working on a case that has him totally stymied. On three occasions, several victims were knocked out, but when they all awakened simultaneously, one girl was raped and no one remembered anything. Jack also fears he is going insane because he hears voices in his head. He meets lawyer Larsen Vale who keeps a secret from everyone. She feels she is evil because she can forecast death.

When Jack touches Larsen the voices stop making him need to get to know her in the hopes she has the power to rid him of his terror permanently. At a wedding she has a vision in which she sees an albino man enchanting people. No one else sees him but her. He wears the stone of Erzie, which is the key to another dimension. Jack arrests this male, but after locking him away and leaving, the culprit enslaves the entire police station occupants. When Jack and Larsen learn what the creature is they know they must prevent him from opening the portal that would allow magical malevolence to conquer the Earth.

Pamela Palmer has written a delightful paranormal romance in which mortals must first believe in the unbelievable, starting with a monster out of the myths that really exists and that magic works. This is an action-oriented thriller with a supportive romantic subplot that enhances the escapades, turning THE DARK GATE into a great romantic urban fantasy.

Harriet Klausner