After Moonrise

September 10, 2012
Bestsellers Cast (the House of Night series, with Kristin Cast) and Showalter (the Alien Huntress series) present a pair of paranormal romances in a world where ghosts thrive among the living. In Cast’s saccharine “Possessed,” wealthy landscaper Lauren Wilcox asks psychic detective Kent Raef to help her learn who killed her twin sister, Aubrey, whose spirit is now sharing Lauren’s body. When the sisters’ souls are abducted, Raef must travel to the Land of the Dead armed only with the cloying power of hope and love. In Showalter’s unusual “Haunted,” Aurora Harper keeps feeling an urge to paint uncomfortably realistic scenes of a brutalized woman shackled to a metal table. She’s also missing memories, making her fear that the bloody images might be more than a dream. With the help of Det. Levi Reid, who also suffers mysterious blackouts, Harper finds the victim and learns she also has no memory of such a scene. A mid-story twist skillfully elevates the suspense, leading to an unorthodox happy ending. Agents: (for Cast) Meredith Bernstein, Meredith Bernstein Literary Agency; (for Showalter) Deidre Knight, the Knight Agency.