Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Shattered Secrets-Karen Harper

Shattered Secrets
Karen Harper
Mira, Aug 26 2014, $7.99
ISBN 9780778316473

When Tess Lockwood was a young child growing up in Cold Creek, Ohio, someone snatched her.  For eight months she remained kidnapped before eventually returning to her family.  Though she recalls nothing of her abduction time, the horror kept Tess away from her hometown for almost two decades.

Recently Tess inherited her family home with the death of her mom.  Reluctantly Tess returns to Cold Creek with a plan to leave the Buckeye State for that state to the north (paraphrasing Woody Hayes) Michigan as soon as she sells the property.  Filled with guilt because he was watching her when she was taken, Sheriff Gabe McCord hopes Tess can remember details of her horror so that he can end the string of kidnappings that torments him and haunted his late father the previous sheriff.  As Tess begins to recover buried memories, someone wants her dead.  Meanwhile, a child’s abduction forces Gabe and Tess to ignore their growing attraction to focus on the rescue.

Shattered Secrets is an enjoyable romantic suspense starring a fascinating heroine suffering from PTSD though the horror occurred almost two decades ago.  During the memory recovery phase, the storyline is leisurely-paced; but accelerates into a frantic hyperspeed second half leading to the audience anxiously awaiting a final conflict between Tess and her nightmare. 


Harriet Klausner

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