Caron Todd The Winter Road

The Winter Road

Caron Todd

Harlequin SuperRomance, Oct 2005, $5.50

ISBN: 0373713045

In Three Creeks, Manitoba, Emily Moore is worried about her septuagenarian neighbor and friend Daniel Rutherford, who she has not heard from in a week, and who missed a wedding in which the entire town showed up. She visits his property to learn he has been gone for about a week. Inside, his dying plants show he has not been there. Worse, a stranger is residing in Daniel's house insisting that he is a nephew interested in his family tree. However, as the residences on Creek Road suffer a rash of odd break-ins, Emily notices that Matthew is paying more attention to her and her parents than the Rutherford family. Emily wonders is he really a relative of her neighbor, or is he the B&E bandit? Regardless, she knows from the moment their eyes saw one another, something inside her heart clicked.

The sequel to THE HOUSE ON CREEK ROAD is a fine romantic suspense thriller, as Emily wonders whether her heart has betrayed her since the stranger seems to be "investigating" her family, not his as he claims. Matthew finds the conflict of interest even more difficult as he hides why he is in town from the woman he has fallen in love with, though they hardly know one another. The romance is perhaps too fast, yet seems right as it adds conflict between the two wannabe lovers. Fans will want to travel down THE WINTER ROAD.

Harriet Klausner