From Publishers Weekly
Brimming with Neggers's (The Waterfall) usual flair for creating likeable, believable characters and her keen recognition of the obstacles that can muddle relationships, this suspenseful modern-day tale is delightfully populated with 19th-century ghosts. When Tess accepts a rundown house by the sea in lieu of payment for a design job, she never expects a skeleton buried in the cellar and the handsome, taciturn widower next door to be part of the package. But the skeleton vanishes before anyone else sees it, throwing doubt on Tess's claims and throwing her into a panic, as the stealing of the skeleton likely points to murder. This also puts a damper on her unsought, but irresistible, romance with neighbor Andrew. Neggers seasons her people with warm, genuine details that give everyone, even the most secondary characters, a depth and quirkiness unusual in a genre that relies too often on stereotypes to fill out the cast. Tess's frequent references to her mother's death from cancer when Tess was a child seem an awkward and a heavy-handed way to give the heroine some baggage, but Tess and Andrew's magnetic dance toward each other and the tense drama surrounding the identity of the missing skeleton engage the reader instantly. Neggers delivers a colorful, well-spun story that shines with sincere emotion among a field overstocked with contemporaries that rely on lots of flashy passion but little soul. (Feb.) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Fun and a little hard work. That￯﾿ﾽs all Tess Haviland had in mind when Ike Grantham paid her for her graphic design work with the run-down, 19th-century carriage house on Boston￯﾿ﾽs North Shore.

Then Ike disappeared and now Tess finds herself with much more than a simple weekend project to get her out of the city. It￯﾿ﾽs not just the rumors that the carriage house is haunted—it￯﾿ﾽs the neighbors: six-year-old Dolly Thorne, her reclusive babysitter, Harley Beckett￯﾿ﾽand especially Dolly￯﾿ﾽs father, Andrew Thorne, who has his own ideas about why Tess has turned up next door.

But when Tess discovers a human skeleton in her dirt cellar, she begins to ask questions about the history of the carriage house, the untimely death of Andrew￯﾿ﾽs wife￯﾿ﾽand Ike￯﾿ﾽs disappearance. Questions a desperate killer wants to silence before the truth reveals that someone got away with murder.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly