Kindred Spirit
John Passarella
Pocket, Jun 2006, $7.99, 400 pp.
ISBN: 0743484800

Growing up identical twins Heather and Hallie Moore were best friends who could communicate telepathically. However everything changed between them when they were ten and Heather fell from a tree. Unconscious for a week, when she finally awakened from her coma, the siblings no longer could mentally communicate.

Years later, Hallie is a TV news reporter while Heather, married to Tom Galloway and with a son Shane, runs a gift basket business from her home. On her way home, someone violently murders Heather stunning her spouse, son and especially her sibling. One year later, Hallie visits the murder site. There she touches a cross that marks the exact locale; Hallie visualizes Heather's final seconds and when she returns to the present she holds her late twin's locket that vanished when Heather was killed. Believing the killer is nearby and feeling her sister is with her, Hallie begins to investigate the murder of her twin even as the killer begins a plan to murder the surviving sister.

Renowned for his frightening horror tales (see the bewitching Wither trilogy), John Passarella provides his scariest book yet with the exhilarating paranormal amateur sleuth tale KINDRED SPIRITS because readers will believe in the connection between the twins even from beyond. The action-packed story line moves rather quickly forward as Hallie investigates the now cold case homicide of her sibling who seems to send her warning messages to be careful. While the support cast especially the heroine's nephew and brother-in-law adds depth to the feel of another impending tragedy, it is the fascinating sisterly link that makes this superior mystical thriller worth reading.

Harriet Klausner