Shadow Lake
B.J. Daniels
Harlequin Special Release, Oct 2007, $5.99
ISBN: 9780373198917

In Washington State during the heavy rain at night, visibility was poor as Anna Collins drives her car when a deer steps out of the nearby woods. She brakes, but loses control of her vehicle which plunges off the road into Shadow Lake. Nearly dead from drowning, she sees a face outside her. The next she knows is that she is a nearby hospital under the care of widower Dr. Gene Brubaker.

Officer D.C. Walker leads the investigation. He contacts Anna's spouse Marc who says she was in an accident eight moths ago in which their child Tyler died. He also says she is dangerous and threatened to kill, which is why he allegedly stopped divorce proceedings. When her car is pulled out of the lake, they find a corpse in the trunk. When she describes the face she saw it fits the description of reclusive Jack Fairbanks, the cop questions further her veracity. However, with his boss Chief Nash acting strange, Walker goes it alone seeking the truth even as he admits an attraction to a woman he considers a probable killer who tried to commit suicide.

Romantic suspense fans will appreciate this tense character driven thriller as the reader will agree with Walker's assessments that his boss is acting peculiar (we know why) and the woman in the lake is a killer and attempted suicide. In both cases, he tries to hold off judgment until all the facts are in. However, when it comes to Anna, he fears his judgment is distorted as he is falling in love with her. Yet in spite of wanting her innocent, all evidence from the corpse in her car to the death of her child to the so-called rescue in the lake and finally to her spouse's fears and warnings point to her being a sociopathic murderer who snapped when she drove her child's death vehicle. Readers will enjoy this fine twisting tale.

Harriet Klausner