Alison Gaylin, Heartless

Heartless

Alison Gaylin

Obsidian, Sep 2008, $21.95

ISBN: 0451224973

Investigative reporter Steve Sorensonis stunned to learn his best friend celebrity reporter Zoe Greene is not only in love with a soap opera star; the die hard Manhattanite is moving to San Esteban, Mexico to live with Warren Clark. Steve is upset for two reasons; first he loves Zoe though he has hidden his feelings from her with the facade of friendship and second he knows this town as the place a NYU student had his heart torn from his chest.

Steve decides to go to Mexico to insure Zoe is okay. Meanwhile her romance with Warren collapses as she begins to do what she does best as a reporter, interrogate. The Sangre Para La Vida cult members are interested in Zoe's "blood in exchange for life".

'Heartless' is a fascinating horror thriller with a unique romantic underpinning. The storyline is based on the Sangre Para La Vida cult believing the Fountain of Youth is to suck human blood vampire style with their latest donor being Zoe. Although the tale at times crosses into the absurd without humor or satire, readers will enjoy this tense thriller for a fun Mexican vacation; that is for readers not tourists.

Harriet Klausner