Darker Than Night-Kim Lenox

Darker Than Night
Kim Lenox
Signet, Apr 6 2010, $6.99
ISBN: 978-0451229588

Shadow Guards' Ravenmaster Lord Avenage attends the Queen's tea party to obtain royal permission to remove sleeping Shadow Guard Countess Selene from the tower. Rourke's explanation to Her Highness is that his unit lacks the manpower to guard Selene, the only female member, and contend with Tantalus. Knowing she was put to sleep purposely so she would lose her sanity, Rourke conceals his agenda from the Queen as he has been dreaming of the woman, who sacrificed so much for London.

The queen and her council agree to have Rourke personally guard Selene, daughter of Cleopatra and a Shadow Guard while Lady Black plans to awaken her and use a vaccine that should control the evil lurking inside her “patient”. The plan goes astray when Selene awakens holding a bloody knife while a corpse lies nearby. As she panics that the evil has taken over her, Rourke calms her down and escorts her to the council where she will be interrogated to determine her mental state and whether Lord Avenage can control her.

The latest Shadows Guards’ thriller (see Night Falls Darkly and So Still the Night) is an enjoyable romantic fantasy as a doubting Rourke, in spite of eight centuries as an immortal, is unsure he does the right thing when it comes to the woman haunting his dreams. Fast-paced throughout readers will enjoy the tale of the two Guards as the hero wonders who is the one threatened by madness and the heroine sees his look at her as hesitation re evil killer or eternal love. The Lenox mythology burns brighter though it remains Darker than Night.

Harriet Klausner