Jennifer St. Giles, Midnight Secrets

Midnight Secrets

Jennifer St. Giles

Berkley, May 2006, $6.99

ISBN: 0425209628

In 1879 Cassie Andrews sees a vision of her cousin Mary dying at sea off the coast of Dartmouth. Unable to ignore what she "witnessed", she plans to learn how her relative ended in the cold water and who caused the "accident". Cassie disguises herself as a chambermaid to gain entrance to the estate of Sean Killaren, the last place Mary stayed where she hears of a curse in which he and his twin will kill one another

Cassie and Sean are immediately attracted to one another, but she fears that the man she is beginning to fall in love might be Mary's killer. Adding to the aura of mystery that surrounds Sean is he is a bibliophile, but the only books he collects are those who dwell on the topic of vampires. Cassie ponders whether the man who stole her soul is soulless.

MIDNIGHT SECRETS is a terrific Victorian romantic suspense that grips the reader from the moment that Cassie has her vision and decides to become an amateur sleuth and never slows down until the mystery is resolved. Cassie is a fabulous heroine with a need to know the truth though she fears that once she learns it her heart will break. Sean is an enigmatic hunk who in some ways seems like a gothic antihero. The whodunit is fun to follow and the paranormal elements blend in completely so that readers obtain a great tale, which is no secret as Jennifer St. Giles always provides such to her audience.

Harriet Klausner