Shadow Lines
Carol Stephenson
Silhouette Bombshell, October 2006, $4.99
ISBN: 0373514247

From Damassine, Switzerland, her sister Yvette, a wealthy widow raising a child by herself, calls European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control epidemiologist Eve St. Giles, claiming everyone in the town seems ill, including her. When her sibling dies from a virus long dormant, Eve has no time to mourn, as she thinks this was a man-made test.

Eve begins her quest to locate the manufacturer before the deadly disease causes pandemic deaths. She uses her psychic skills and reluctantly accepts the help of her former lover, security expert Nick Petter. As the countdown nears the point of no return, Eve seeks the culprit, as much as she searches for ancient healing practices that seem to have contained the lethal virus.

The fascination in this paranormal thriller comes from the ease in which Carol Stephenson incorporates a historical subplot, mostly through the research Eve does that takes her back to a thirteenth century victim of the French Inquisition. The storyline is fast-paced from the moment a panicked Yvette calls Eve, interrupting her field work on potential Mad Cow Disease, and it never slows down as the heroine and her beloved teammate Nick race against the clock. This is a one sitting romantic suspense tale.