DEADLY HARVEST

Author: Heather Graham ISBN: 9780778325604 11/2008 SUSPENSE Publisher: MIRA

A dark legend comes to life... When a young woman is found dead in a field, dressed up as a scarecrow with a slashed grin and a broken neck, the residents of Salem, Massachusetts, begin to fear that the infamous Harvest Man is more than just a rumor. But out-of-town cop Jeremy Flynn doesn't have time for ghost stories. He's in town on another investigation, looking for a friend's wife, who mysteriously vanished in a cemetery. Complicating his efforts is local occult expert Rowenna Cavanaugh, who launches her own investigation, convinced that a horror from the past has crept into the present and is seducing women to their deaths. Jeremy uses logic and solid police work. Rowenna depends on intuition. But they both have the same goal: to stop the abductions and locate the missing women before Rowenna herself falls prey to the Harvest Man's dark seduction.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

The second installment in Heather Graham's Flynn Brothers Trilogy, DEADLY HARVEST, scared the pants off me. The story is so realistically written, I was shivering in my shoes—and I loved it! To be frightened and entertained, while being pulled into a romance between two almost opposite personalities is a treat. At least in my house, that is!

This story begins on Halloween, in Salem, Massachusetts, with a married couple who are trying, desperately, to leave their past behind them and begin anew. Their plan seems to be working until they decide to have their fortunes told. The ominous prediction, as well as the creepy fortune-teller, send them exploring on their own. The wife disappears in a cemetery—and the story begins. Jeremy Flynn is the husband's friend, and he and Rowena, a woman he's intensely attracted to but whose paranormal beliefs are at odds with his own down-to-earth ideas, try and help find the missing woman. But bodies begin to surface, and an old tale about a Harvest Man who terrorizes the unsuspecting combined with present-day Devil worship, spells and witchcraft, make this one of the scariest stories I've read in a long time. And, just for the record, while the fall days are chilly, the nights are hot, filled with Jeremy and Rowena's boiling passion. This book has it all!

DEADLY HARVEST is a sinister tale that grabs the reader on the first page and doesn't let go until every frightening stone is overturned. I can easily recommend this book. But read it with the lights on!

Kay James