Tuesday, September 25

Cindy Dees: Haunted Echoes

Charged with discovering who is behind a series of major power failures, an Interpol agent teams up with a former art thief to retrieve a stolen statue believed by its owner to have magical properties that are being utilised by terrorists to tamper with the power grid. But whoever stole the statue will go to any lengths to keep it. As the bodies of anyone who knows anything about the statue and its theft start turning up, the pair find themselves being hunted across Europe as they follow a trail to the statue that seems to have been laid by a ghost. They manage to find the statue, thwart the terrorists and fall in love along the way.
This is the second book in the seven book Madonna Key series and the plot is actually a lot more plausible than this summary makes it sound. What wasn’t entirely convincing was the romance between the main characters. I simply couldn’t believe that the daredevil art thief and the cautious cop would make it long term. The sexual tension is high and well written. I can totally believe that these two will fall into a torrid affair but happy ever after, not so much.
As a part of a series we did get to revisit with characters from the former book which was nice. There were also a couple of interesting characters introduced here that I am hoping will feature in future instalments of the series. The mysterious man makes a cameo appearance again and I can’t help but be disappointed in his appropriation (if he is indeed the aged wizard I think he is). Unless he is in some way pivotal to the finale I don’t see why his presence is necessary in a series supposedly devoted to the sacred feminine.
Anyway, a decent enough read. Plenty of action, in every sense of the word, keeps things moving. While this story stands alone I think reading it in sequence enriches the story line. I will be continuing with this series.-Lynn

No comments: