After Dark, by Jayne Castle (aka Jayne Ann Krentz)

After reading a DIK review for the newly released After Glow, written by Jayne Ann Krentz (under her Jayne Castle pseudonym), which I'm planning to buy on my upcoming trip to the US, I decided to reread, After Dark. Apparently After Glow follows the same protagonists as After Dark, Lydia Smith and Emmett London, so I though I should refresh my memory, even though I'd reread it only in August 2002 for the last time.

A race of aliens once lived on the future Earth colony called Harmony, leaving behind them the ruins of a vast, beautiful, and mysterious culture that is still protected by the psychic illusion traps and eerie ghosts that they created.

Lydia Smith is an archaeologist who can resonate and dissolve the illusions, and those talents, combined with her lack of finances and questionable professional reputation, make her the obvious hire for Emmett London, who is trying to track down a lost antique and the nephew who stole it. Lydia's first consulting job quickly turns dangerous, however, as corpses, ghosts, and illusion traps start popping up--not to mention the rather unprofessional electricity between her and her first client.

The last time I read it (see my impressions HERE), I gave After Dark only a B-. I was irritated by how the ending lacked closure. This time, probably because I was reading it while conscious that the story would be continued, the ending, with its lack of declaration of love, didn't bother me. My grade would be higher, a B+.

I also enjoyed the book less last time because the setting was too similar yet different to the one of the Psynergy series (Amaryllis, Zinnia and Orchid). This time, no problem at all, probably because I read Castle's novella in the Charmed anthology only last January, so the setting was still fresh in my mind. I do still prefer the world in which the Psynergy books are set, but I was just fine with this one, too.

All in all, very good, a wonderful comfort read and I'm looking forward to After Glow.