Patricia S. (patsto) reviewed on 10/20/2005 + 33 more book reviews

5 stars - A real page-turner that you won't be able to put down. As a child, Toni Fraser has chillingly accurate dreams of murders about to be committed, a

psychic gift she suppresses. Years later, Toni and five friends follow a real-life dream:

they procure a ruined Scottish castle and turn it into a tourist attraction, highlighted by

a faux historical show Toni scripts about a murderously passionate Cromwellian-period laird,

Bruce MacNiall. Of course, the laird is fictional, as is Toni's terrifying tale of his

wife's strangling. Or so it seemsuntil an angry kilted hunk thunders onstage one night atop

a black stallion, claiming to be the castle's absentee owner, Bruce MacNiall. Ghost? Not

likely. But when several missing girls are found strangled to death in the surrounding

forest, it certainly appears that some murderous spirit is very much alive. The author's

seamless incorporation of just a few supernatural elements into an otherwise solidly real

situation makes the nightmarish threat believable. But more than anything, Graham's

(Haunted, etc.) deft characterization of Toni and her friends (who are as funny and familiar

as the cast of "Friends"), and especially the laird, mysterious but never one-dimensionally

goth, keeps interest in the book's romance, as well as its suspense, high.

Back to all reviews by this member
Back to all reviews of this book
Back to Book Reviews
Back to Book Details