The Salt Maiden
by Colleen
Thompson
Romantic
Suspense in an outer and inner desert wasteland.
Publisher: Dorchester (November 2007)
THE
SALT MAIDEN by Colleen Thompson is
riveting suspense with an emotionally satisfying romance. The finely
detailed characterization combines with an eerie exquisitely written
landscape to make this novel a reading and re-reading pleasure.
Dana Vanover needs to locate her sister Angie and time is of the
essence. Nikki Harrison needs a bone marrow transplant to save her
life. Dana and her mother, Nikki's grandmother, are not matches, so as
her biological mother, Angie is Nikki's last hope. With urgency to save
Nikki and please her mother, Dana travels to Devil's Claw, a desert in
Rimrock County, Texas --- the last place Angie was located. The deeper
Dana delves into her sister's life, the more danger she unearths...
including a body preserved in salt. The town's residents were none to
keen on Angie's eclectic ways or her interference in town affairs nor
do they relish Dana's digging up the past. As soon as she arrives in
Devil's Claw, danger lurks everywhere. Sheriff Jay Eversole is Dana's
only ally in the small town but as a former desert warrior and war
veteran, he is plagued by day time nightmares. Can Dana find her sister
in time and is her growing attraction for Jay a threat to her safety?
Will the sheriff's past come back to haunt their search, making him a
threat?
Each chapter of THE SALT MAIDEN
begins with either an entry from
Angie's sobriety journal or a quote about salt, adding a suspenseful or
reflective dimension to the novel. The desert wasteland haunts the
landscape of this novel, creating an almost paranormal character in THE
SALT MAIDEN. Colleen Thompson creates an intriguing landscape,
not only
of the natural world of the desert but also a landscape that extends
into the daily life and dynamics of the community of Devil's Claw. The
outer landscape becomes an internal landscape of her characters as
Colleen Thompson reveals the vulnerabilities and inner psychological
wasteland within Dana, Angie and Jay.
The suspense of THE SALT MAIDEN
twists and turns as the motivations of
different characters conflict and add new suspects. When one clue is
solved, another even more intriguing mystery remains. Colleen Thompson
creates fast-paced suspense where every second contains both danger and
a pressing need to find answers. At the same time, Colleen Thompson
creates a romance that is reflective in tone through her portrait of
the wasteland, adding a fresh intriguing vision to the genre. As the
desert warrior Jay and Dana work together, they are forced to reveal
parts of their pasts that they have kept hidden. THE SALT MAIDEN is a
romance that dares to look into the wasteland of the heart and heal
wounded souls. Readers will appreciate THE SALT MAIDEN both for the
immediate reading pleasure but also the mysteries and questions that
remain afterwards. The almost mystical nature of salt and the salt
maiden haunts even once the suspense resolves. THE SALT MAIDEN leaves
the reader with a question that will make this book a re-reading or
book club discussion delight: are some unforgivable acts redeemable?
Reviewed by Merrimon,
Merrimon Book Reviews
