"A page-turner with strong characters and an ending that will blow your mind."

Mariposa County Sheriff Bill Ashton is having a really bad day. First teenagers stumbled on a skeleton, then one homicide became a series of killings with ritual aspects to them. As if that weren't enough, there's a red Miata with a missing driver. The owner called AAA, but when the tow truck arrived the driver was missing -- and the mechanic found a large bag of money and a cell phone, only to get a call on that phone that indicates the owner is female and in big trouble. Just what Bill needs: a missing woman with some bad guys in hot pursuit. The car is registered to Captain Arden Jones, an Air Force officer stationed in L.A. -- and the missing woman is her sister, who took the car without Arden's knowledge.

But Samantha, Arden's missing sister, is in the hands of a madman who has imprisoned her in a small room lined with books. Out of boredom she begins to read, and soon realizes that her captor has an occult purpose for kidnapping her. While Samantha seeks enlightenment and a way to win her freedom, the drug dealer from whom she stole the money she was carrying is looking for her -- and Arden may become the next victim of the assassin he has sent after Sam.

Arden and Bill's search for the killer and Samantha is complicated by their growing attraction for each other. Each has endured a bad marriage and a divorce, and neither is in the market for a spouse. Bill is wedded to staying in Mariposa County, where his family has owned a ranch for decades, and Arden is equally dedicated to her AF career. Neither is willing to compromise, nto even for love.

As time passes, it becomes clearer to Bill that this case is not just another group of serial killings, but has some sort of magical aspect to it. The town's Wiccan priestess tells him that while it uses Wiccan symbolism, the magic itself isn't Wiccan, because Wicca does not permit human sacrifice -- its main tenet is "do no harm" .Together, Arden, Bill and Josie struggle to solve the mystery before Samantha ends up as the next victim.

I have become a diehard T.L, Schaefer fan. This is a taut, nail-bitingly suspenseful thriller, with strong characterization, a plot with more twists and turns than a labyrinth, and believable romance between two stubborn people who must learn to compromise and trust again. Wicca is used effectively and accurately (Josie gets her own book in The Brotherhood) and respectfully, and the ending is a mind-blower! Read this when you're not by yourself, and it isn't a dark and stormy night -- it's the sort of book that will keep you up late and scare the bejeezus out of you.

Sensuality Rating: not tons of sex, but what there is, is steamy, monogamous sex

Reviewed by Gillian Fitzgerald
Courtesy Sensual Romance Reviews
Posted May 9, 2004

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Summary

Mariposa is a beautiful blink-and-you-miss-it Gold Rush town on the border of Yosemite National Park. Sheriff Bill Ashton's life is good, quiet, until the bodies of five women are discovered in the remote foothills and all hell breaks loose. Then another woman disappears, leaving her estranged sister's stolen car and half a million in cash behind as their only clues.

Air Force Captain Arden Jones hasn't spoken to her sister in years, but Samantha's disappearance galvanizes her, sending her to small-town America in search of the black sheep of the family.

Thrown together by circumstance, Bill and Arden explore Samantha's disappearance and her probable connection to the murdered women. Neither expects, nor welcomes, the attraction that surges between them, or the fact that setting aside long-held beliefs may be the only way to stop a madman bent on creating the perfect woman, the one true goddess central to the Wiccan religion, Diana.