Present Day Serenity, Texas and Boston, Massachusetts

At the reception following the wedding of Jordan Buchanan's brother Dylan and her best friend, Kate MacKenna, Jordan was assigned the chore of keeping the best man away from the bride's younger sister Isabel. Jordan has known her brother Nick's partner in the FBI for years and may be the only female in the room impervious to Noah Clayborne's good looks and charm. Noah may love all women, but a naive nineteen-year-old is definitely not his type, thus freeing Jordan to enjoy herself, which she does until her attention is caught by a disturbance at the door. The gatecrasher claims he was invited by Isabel and that he is also a MacKenna and that a MacKenna should not be wedding a Buchanan. He informs Jordan that he's Professor Horace Atkins MacKenna on sabbatical to complete his research into the centuries-long feud between the two clans. According to him, the MacKennas are angels and the Buchanan's are devils. Jordan dismisses the man as a wholly biased investigator and politely declines his invitation to come to Texas to examine his findings.

Jordan is a mathematical prodigy and a genius at computers. She recently sold her own software business when offered a fantastical sum. She has yet to decide what to do with the rest of her life. Then Noah, with a comment about her lack of spontaneity, goads her into telling him she's going to Texas.

Jordan's visit to the small town of Serenity, Texas begins badly and deteriorates from there. With a dead body in the trunk of her rental car and a small-minded local police chief ready to pin it on the stranger in town, not to mention the local bully who punches her in the face, it helps to have four brothers in law enforcement and a federal judge for a father. No one is more welcome in Serenity than her brother Nick and his partner, Noah Clayborne. Nick can't stay long, but Noah's there for as long as she needs him.

Great plotting involving murder, an unknown arch-villain, hints of a long-lost treasure, likable protagonists, and a town full of interesting characters mark SHADOW DANCE as an excellent read. A light touch in the gradually warming relationship between friendly antagonists balances the suspense to top it all off.

SHADOW DANCE is connected to the latest Julie Garwood title out in hardcover this month, SHADOW MUSIC, though the settings are eight centuries apart. I have a feeling we haven't heard the last word on that connection.

Whether you prefer contemporary or historical, for passion and suspense, Julie Garwood has it all.

Jane Bowers