Indiana – Present Day

What homicide detective Lindsay Frost wouldn’t give to be human again. Sounds mysterious, eh? Yeah, well, Lindsay was murdered and, trust me, she’s not happy about it. It’s only by a stretch and good police work from her mortal co-workers and sister that her death has been ruled murder, not suicide, as the killer apparently intended. All Lindsay remembers is coming home in hopes of spending time with her fiancé, enjoying an ice-cold beer, and soaking in the tub. But the tub became the scene of her death, and that’s where her partner found her -- wrists sliced -- when he became worried at her being incommunicado. Everyone has trouble reconciling her death with suicide, and the lack of a note is only the beginning of a small list of things that point to murder.

The only way Kate Frost knows how to deal with her grief over her sister’s death is to solve it. As a beat cop, Kate has the nose for detective work, and the fact that she and her sister were highly competitive has pushed Kate to strive for more and reach any goal she sets for herself. Things become uncomfortable when Lindsay’s partner, Gerard Alvarez, shuts Kate out of the investigation due to her family connection. He’d always been pushy, and to totally be cut off from everything really stymies Kate’s drive to close the case and begin healing. But something unexpected happens when Kate begins doing her own bit of detective work in her free time...

Would the department shrinks rule her insane if Kate told them that her dead sister’s ghost has begun riding shotgun as she starts her personal investigation?

With a quirky premise and solid writing, Scarlett Dean proves that ghostly phenomena do exist in INVISIBLE SHIELD. What struck me was how the author builds her characters and allows the reader to get to know them from two different points of view. It’s a personal vendetta for Lindsay as we see how she not only helps Kate, but learns just what happens beyond the “white light.” The only reason Kate has no trouble believing that her sister is her new ghostly sidekick is the fact that she’s open to the belief of the paranormal and knows that there’s something more than death and a burial plot. What I found intriguing is how well the sister’s complement one another, but yet struggle with more earthly sisterly problems like one-upmanship and bickering. It’s a refreshing mix to combine both the contemporary aspect of this mystery with the paranormal. Maybe it’s been done before, maybe it hasn’t, but it was definitely a first time for me, and I loved every second of it.

The twist of INVISIBLE SHIELD is the hook, and the sheer talent of Scarlett Dean is the cement that keeps this book fresh, riveting, and just plain awesome. The more I’ve thought about it, and the more I’ve mentally revisited these characters, the more apt I am to give it RRT’s Perfect 10, so that’s just what I’ll do. Be sure to check it out.

Amy Cunningham