Book Review: Midnight Rain

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Midnight Rain     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Holly Lisle
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Romance
Onyx, Nov 2004, $6.99, 330 pp.

Once she was in an abusive marriage to Michael Schaeffer, but when he threatened to kill her, Phoebe ran away. It took him three years to track her down. He entered her classroom intending to kill her and her students, but after he murdered a few she disarmed him and knocked him into a coma. He lies in a hospital not expected to awaken so when Phoebe receives the call from Michael that he is coming to get her she is horrified.

Her next door neighbor emergency room doctor Alan sees the ghost of his daughter Chick in another world with a different climate. Chick visits Phoebe and tells her to go see her father; not sure why she does as the ghost asked. Alan and Phoebe exchange stories, but fail to see the connection between them. Michael remains comatose but the calls continue to haunt Phoebe as now he threatens Alan too. As his daughter plays matchmaker and rescuer from beyond, Michael intensifies his efforts while Alan and Phoebe hope to stay alive long enough to fall in love.

MIDNIGHT RAIN is a dynamic romantic suspense as readers’ perceptions of reality is cleverly distorted by Holly Lisle. The audience goes back and forth between Michael reaching out from the other side to an associate pretending to be him, but whom. The romance eases some of the tension although for Alan, burned badly once before, opening up is difficult. His ghostly daughter coaxes him to give his heart freely as she as an otherworldly matchmaker brings hope to the beleaguered duo.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner