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Grave Intent
By Deborah LeBlanc
Dorchester
Reviewed by: Natalie R. Collins
In author Deborah LeBlanc's second book, she strikes at the core of all parents with the greatest fear--the loss or imminent loss of a child. When danger strikes so close to home, a parent will move heaven and earth to save their offspring.
Of course, that is made more difficult when the source of the danger is most decidedly NOT earthly.
Janet and Michael Savoy run a respectable funeral home, mostly without any help from Michael's itinerant father, who only shows up looking for money. Unfortunately, he picks the viewing for nineteen-year-old Thalia Stevenson as the time to show up again.
This funeral is different, because it's a Gypsy funeral, complete with rituals, incantations, and a very special gold coin placed beneath the dead girl's hands...
The gold coin proves too much temptation for Michael's father, who is in deep trouble with a bookie, and so he takes it, and all hell--literally--breaks loose.
Janet takes her daughter and young niece to a family cabin for the weekend, but it's not far enough away to escape the horror. It seems that the gypsies and their evil spirits want the coin back, and if they don't get it, they will take something in return. That something happens to be Janet and Michael's little daughter.
There is little breathing time in this suspenseful new novel by LeBlanc. You are on the edge of your seat as Michael realizes something is horribly wrong when he can't reach Janet. He races to find her, encountering obstacle after obstacle, and meanwhile, the menace stalks closer and closer to the little girl.
If the Savoys don't find the coin and return it to Thalia's grave before the rising of the second sun, Ellie will die.
It's hard to stop reading, even to take needed restroom breaks, when in the middle of this wonderfully woven tale by LeBlanc. This is the second novel I've read by this author, and I'm a lifetime fan. I breathlessly await (mostly because after reading it I am OUT of breath) her next book.
Deborah has joined the ReadersRoom staff this month with a column, The Dark Side. You won't want to miss it, or her books.
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