Mind Games -- Merline Lovelace

It’s been a while since I’ve read a book from the Nocturne line, Silhouette’s series of paranormal romantic suspense novels. Merline Lovelace’s MIND GAMES is a very entertaining novel, although to be honest it’s not all that paranormal, reading more like an espionage/action/adventure yarn. Taylor Chase is an Air Force captain sent in undercover to rescue a scientist who’s being held captive on a tropical island belonging to a reclusive, sinister billionaire, and helping her out is an old boyfriend of hers, a professor who specializes in psychic research. I knew from previous books of hers I’ve read that Lovelace is a really good storyteller with the ability to create likable characters and keep a story moving along at a fast clip. She certainly does that here. I raced right through MIND GAMES and had a good time doing it. It’s romantic, it’s suspenseful, and Stuff Blows Up Real Good, always a plus.

The Dark Gate -- Pamela Palmer

Recently I’ve read several more novels in the Silhouette Nocturne line, since Livia’s doing a book for them, and Pamela Palmer’s THE DARK GATE is the best one I’ve come across so far.

Washington D.C. homicide detective Jack Hallihan is on the trail of a serial rapist who has started murdering his victims. He has another problem to deal with, too – ever since he was a child he’s heard voices babbling inside his head, the same bizarre malady that drove his father to alcoholism and then suicide. Beautiful defense attorney Larsen Vale gets mixed up in Jack’s investigation, and she has a secret, too. She has psychic visions of other people’s deaths, and a sinister, other-worldly albino has started cropping up in those visions. It soon becomes apparent that the albino is responsible for the rapes and murders Jack is investigating. Then there are the two weird little characters running around Washington shooting people with arrows, and the audience at the Kennedy Center that’s turned into a rampaging horde by mass hypnosis, and the entire Washington police force falling under the sorcerous thrall of a villain from an alternate universe . . .

This is an enthusiastic blending of a “cops vs. serial killer” suspense novel with urban fantasy, and as a result it reads sort of like the bastard child of James Patterson and Mercedes Lackey, with a little Norvell Page thrown in for good measure. There are gunfights galore and several hot sex scenes, and even though this is Palmer’s first novel, it’s written in smooth, fast-paced prose that really gallops along. I had a few minor issues with it, such as the fact that the stubborn reluctance by the hero and heroine to open up to each other about their psychic manifestations seems more like a plot convenience than a realistic development, but overall THE DARK GATE is one of the more entertaining novels I’ve read in any genre lately, and I’m glad it’s set up for a sequel. Good stuff, and well worth reading.

Raintree: Inferno -- Linda Howard

Paranormal novels are hugely popular in the romance genre right now, as some of you probably know already. I suppose this boom was prompted by the success of TV shows like BUFFY, ANGEL, CHARMED, etc., plus the best-selling status of novels by Laurell K. Hamilton, Charlaine Harris, and others. Silhouette Books has started an entire line of paranormal romance novels, the Nocturne series.

RAINTREE: INFERNO is the first book in a trilogy within the Nocturne line, about a centuries-long war between two rival clans of wizards, the Raintree and the Ansara, who have varying powers, most of them somehow connected to the elements. Dante Raintree, the hero of this novel, is a Fire Master, able to start and control fires, heat, smoke, etc. The heroine is Lorna Clay, a “stray” wizard, not aligned with either side in the war and in fact unaware of it -- and her own powers -- until she stumbles into an attempt on Dante’s life by agents of the Ansara.

There’s enough sexual tension here for the book to qualify as a romance, but for the most part it’s actually more of an urban fantasy/suspense novel. The author, Linda Howard, is a veteran romance writer who has produced work in several different sub-genres, including some mainstream romantic suspense novels that I’ve read and enjoyed. She’s a very smooth storyteller and keeps the pace rolling along in this book until it reaches a cliffhanger ending that has me thinking I’ll probably read the other two books in the trilogy.

I’ve read quite a few romance novels over the years, mostly of the historical and romantic suspense varieties. Teresa Medeiros and Marsha Canham are probably my favorite romance authors. Medeiros’s BREATH OF MAGIC is one of the best-plotted time travel novels I’ve read, and Canham’s medieval adventures are full of well-written action. So it’s not surprising that I would read some of these Silhouette Nocturne books, but in the spirit of full disclosure, I admit that I have an ulterior motive. Livia’s going to be writing a book for the line, which means that sooner or later I’ll be reading and editing the manuscript. So I want to get a good feel for the style and pacing of the novels they publish. RAINTREE: INFERNO was the second Nocturne I’ve read. The other was BLOOD SON, a vampire novel by Erica Orloff, which I also enjoyed quite a bit. I’m sure I’ll be reading more.