The Morning After

Though this novel is published under the imprint of Romantic Sounds and has a rose on the cover, it's quite a thriller. Someone is burying lovely and lively women in already occupied coffins and then listening to them suffocate. The side show of romance can hardly hold a candle to the superbly frightening performance of Cristine McMurdo-Wallis as one of the buried women. Lots of people are murdered, and the denouement is hard to believe. But the hero and heroine are smart, conflicted, and interesting, soooo. . . enjoy being terrified. B.H.B. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine


Lock the doors, turn on the lights, and pull up the covers! Being buried alive is horrid enough to imagine, and Cristine McMurdo-Wallis chillingly narrates that opening scene with the timbre and cadence of an escalating nightmare as Barbara Jean realizes this is her fate. McMurdo-Wallis's impeccable timing and pacing lift this novel off the written page. "What's all the fussin' up ta Blood Mountain?" a gap-toothed Northern Georgia mountain man asks. Officer Slyvie, in her spiked platinum hair and snakeskin boots, cusses like a sailor as she hunts for the sadistic serial killer. Lisa Jackson sprinkles red herrings and horrific images like confetti; McMurdo-Wallis provides the goose bumps. K.A.T. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine