Anne Silver’s journalist brother Michael has been investigating a theft ring whose members pose as ghostbusters. He’s been attacked and hospitalised, and Ann wants to carry on, but needs help. She turns to Julian Aries, a mysterious government agent she’d met briefly, six months before. Sparks had flown, but Julian had left on his final mission. He swore he’d be back for her. He never came. Instead, he’s retreated to a remote mountain shack, where Anne finds him recovering from wounds and fever after the mission went belly up.This was a B+. Beautiful. The whole story of Julian and Anne, and all the supernatural stuff just came together perfectly. This is a goodie from 1984.
Anne was quite a strong heroine and I just loved Julian. At first he seemed a little too domineering, but he definitely softened throughout the book. All that bluster was to try to cover his vulnerabilities and insecurities. He just craved Anne's love and tenderness, but didn't know how to go about asking her for it, without, he thought, making her pity him. Poor guy, but this is just the type of conflict I love.
Even though the suspense plot was interesting and enjoyable, some elements of the villains' reasoning were a bit illogical. Wouldn't it have been more intelligent, if they knew from the very beginning who Anne was, and that she was trying to investigate them, to simply do the deghosting and then don't do anything? To deflect suspicion?