Friday, September 3, 2010

Ghost Hunter

Ghost Hunter by Jayne Castle
Local Guild boss and powerful ghost-hunter Cooper Boone is everything botanist Elly St. Clair could ask for - the handsome, strong, and silent type. Maybe too silent. For when Guild secrets threaten her career at the college, Elly has to call off their marriage - and leave small-town life behind...
But starting over in the thriving metropolis of Cadence City isn't easy, especially when one of Elly's new friends disappears in the eerie catacombs beneath the streets. Cooper turns up just in time to help Elly investigate. And as the mystery deepens and dangerous ghost myths and legends come to light, Cooper makes it clear he intends to stick around - and this time he's holding nothing back...
--Ghost Hunter by Jayne Castle, Copyright ©May 2006 by Jayne Ann Krentz, published by Jove Books

My Review

Botanist Elly St. Clair has discovered that her fiancée Cooper Boone—head of the Aurora Springs Ghost Hunter Guild—has been keeping secrets from her. Secrets that are getting out and threatening her career at the local college. Feeling she has no other choice, Elly ends her engagement and leaves Aurora Springs for the big city.

“Give her six months,” Cooper assures her distraught father. “She’ll be ready to come home then.”

But when Cooper arrives in Cadence City to take Elly home, he finds a completely different woman than the one that left Aurora Springs. This new Elly is confident, strong and self-assured. And she needs a Ghost Hunter to go with her into the catacombs on a rescue mission.

Elly’s friend, Bertha Newell, is a ruin-rat who regularly combs the alien catacombs under the city for alien treasures to sell in her shop. When she failed to return from her latest expedition, Elly knew something had to have gone wrong. She needs to search for her, and for that, she needs a Ghost Hunter. Luckily, her Ghost-hunting ex-fiancée happens to be in town.

They find Bertha below, but they also find a rare and dangerous blue Ghost, which Cooper has no trouble dispatching. Another of his secrets, Elly realizes. She never knew Cooper could work blue Ghost light. Unfortunately, Cooper had to melt amber to take care of the spectre, an act that comes with its own unique consequences.

Bertha remembers little of what happened to her in the catacombs, but in her pocket is a handful of twigs and leaves. Elly quickly recognizes them as the plant source of a powerful new street drug called Enchantment, or Chant. Whoever is manufacturing the drug is using the catacombs as their lab and storage site.

Cooper contacts the local Guild and offers his services as an investigator—another secret, Elly realizes. The Cooper Boone she knew was a librarian before he became Guild Boss. She knew nothing of his investigative background. All the more reason to cancel their wedding, she tells him. How can she marry someone who keeps so many secrets?

Whether Cooper likes it or not, he’s got a partner for this investigation. Can Cooper and Elly find out who is responsible for the new street drug before they themselves are arrested as the suspected drug dealers? And how is it all connected to her family and the Aurora Springs Guild?

I give this story THREE STARS.

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