Waking The Dead-Kylie Brant

Waking The Dead
Kylie Brant
Berkley, Nov 2009, $7.99
ISBN: 9780425231142

In Oregon’s Willamette Forest, nature guide Zach Sharper finds seven garbage bags in a remote part of the wilderness in a cave on Castle Rock where you would not expect any trash. He takes a peek and finds each contains bones that he knows from his Ranger days are human remains although none contain a skull. He calls the authorities.

Sheriff Marin Andrews asks Raiker Forensics for help in identifying the bodies. They send former model turned forensic anthropologist Caitlin Fleming to investigate. Sheriff Andrews hires Zach to guide and protect Caitlin into the wilderness. He reluctantly escorts Caitlin deep into what seems to her the primeval forest to the cave on Castle Rock. Every step they take the pair argues safety vs. catching one killer plus an apparent partner or accessory; either way a diabolically brilliant predator.

The latest Mindhunters romantic suspense thriller (see WAKING NIGHTMARE and WAKING EVIL) is a terrific entry as the investigation supersedes the romance; both want one another but know survival comes before seeing where their relationship goes. Zach is a super guide who takes the heroine and readers to a remote part of Oregon while Cait is a fabulous forensic anthropologist due to a fascinating former career as a model. Fans will enjoy climbing Willamette Forest with this couple.

Harriet Klausner