Linda Howard Cover of Night

Cover of Night

Linda Howard

Ballantine, July 2006, $25.95, 338 pp.

ISBN 0345486501

After being widowed, Cate Nightingale and her twin boys move to the isolated Idaho town of Trail Stop where cell phones don't work and there is only one road in and out of the place. She opens up a bed and breakfast which is moderately successful and for three years relies on the town handyman Calvin Harris to do the repairs that always arises at the worst times. She believes Cal is a shy man because he always blushes when he has to talk to her.

Her opinion of him changes when thugs arrive at the B&B demanding the luggage of a guest who snuck out the widow and disappeared. Cal somehow sneaks up behind them and gets them out of the inn after giving them the guest's luggage. They are looking for a flash drive with files from a crime lord's computer but it isn't in the suitcase. They believe that it is still on the premises. They cut off the town trying to terrorize people into giving them what they want. Cal organizes the townsfolk so that they can survive the ordeal while Cate realizes that she has fallen for him and prays he doesn't try to be a hero and get himself killed.

COVER OF NIGHT is Linda Howard at her very best. The storyline is filled with action, romance and family drama as a town bands together to fight the enemy. Ms. Howard has the magic touch when it comes to creating protagonists readers will care about. As the town plays matchmaker, the hero and heroine know what the other is feeling and respond in a manner that is so hot readers will feel the sparks flying

Harriet Klausner