Hannah Howell, Highland Savage

Highland Savage

Hannah Howell

Zebra, May 2007, $6.99

ISBN: 0821779990

In 1481 in Scotland, Lucas Murray knows he is fortunate to be alive as the beating and subsequent fall off the cliff should have killed him. As he slowly mends his body, his mind remains focused on one thing: killing Katerina of Dunlochan, who he believes arranged to have him dead.

After months of physically recovering, Lucas is ready to destroy Kat. However, he is stunned to learn she is dead until he learns she died from falling off the same cliff that nearly took his life. He knows something is amiss so he searches for Kat who saw him die. When he finds her in exile, she explains that her half-sister Agnes and her lover Ranald control Dunlochan. They are devastating everything and everyone and plan to finish it off by murdering Kat and Lucas.

The latest Murray historical, romantic, suspense (see Lucas' twin in HIGHLAND BARBARIAN) is an exhilarating thriller that grips the audience once Lucas and Kat realize the reported death of the other was a Twain exaggeration. The storyline is action-packed as Kat and Lucas plot to defeat their adversaries while also falling in love with one another although the romance seems a bit intrusive on the prime theme of the heroes defeating the stereotypical odious, nasty usurpers. Still, fifteenth-century, Scottish romance fans will enjoy Hannah Howell's Highland historical.

Harriet Klausner