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“The apartment house stood at the edge of a woods outside a city in southern New Hampshire. Beyond the woods flowed the river, dark and twisting.”
And so begins Bethany Campbell’s Dead Opposites, a romantic suspense novel set in a creepy old apartment building no one would want to call home sweet home. Both a nifty mystery and a tender love story, it’s a favorite of mine that delivers on both sides of the romantic suspense equation.
The book opens with a deliciously menacing prologue that informs the reader of the building’s history and sets the mood for the story to follow:
“No one had ever told Ginnie Prince that Hawthorne Towers itself was haunted, but no one had to – her imagination began to work overtime the moment she saw the place. Try as she might, she could not shake her conviction that the building was more than a collection of rented rooms. It seemed to her like an entity with a life and soul of its own – an uneasy soul that was both disturbed and disturbing.”
Desperate to leave Indiana following a divorce, Ginnie took the first job out of state she could find and rented the first decent apartment. Seven months later, she’s more than ready to move. The gloomy setting unnerves her, and at night she hears strange noises in the walls. When she gets a job interview in Maine, she eagerly makes plans to drive there, asking an elderly neighbor to keep an eye on her apartment while she’s gone. But shortly before she leaves, the neighbor falls while walking his dog and must be taken to the hospital. The building’s manager is also attacked, his keys stolen. As the prologue’s final words so ominously pronounce:
“In short, there was nobody left in Hawthorne Towers who could see that Ginnie Prince’s apartment stayed safe.
“Nobody at all.”
Halfway to Maine, a blizzard forces Ginnie to turn back. She finds an unwelcome surprise waiting back at her apartment: the body of a dead man sitting in her bathtub. Horrified, she stumbles downstairs and into the arms of the Wayne Priborski, the aloof neighbor who lives in the tower opposite hers. A former navy pilot who retired following a devastating injury, Wayne has no interest in getting involved in anyone else’s troubles, especially when the police investigate and find nothing in Ginnie’s bathtub. But when it becomes clear there’s something strange at work in Hawthorne Towers, Wayne can’t keep himself from trying to help her.
One of the book’s strongest aspects is its style and tone. From those opening lines, Campbell perfectly crafts a moody atmosphere that permeates the story and draws the reader in. Although perhaps not technically a gothic, it does have the dark, brooding hero and eerie setting of one, and is better than any of the books published in Harlequin Intrigue’s current gothic promotion. Hawthorne Towers is perfectly evoked locale, an old building with a long history of strange events and an unsettling air. In a way, it’s as much of a character as any of the human ones, as uncovering the building’s secrets is a key part of the mystery. It’s populated with an eccentric cast of personalities, from the old woman who claims to be psychic to the man who seems to be hiding things in the dark woods outside.
The puzzle is a good one, with clues subtly planted that pay off later and a well-developed storyline. The plot moves at a deliberate pace which does verge on slow at times, but the way it gradually unfolds allows the menace to build over the course of the story. The villain’s motive is original and wonderfully twisted, even if it does result in one of those climaxes where the villain won’t stop talking to explain it all.
This is also a romantic suspense book that doesn’t forget the characters. Campbell delivers two distinctive and believable people in Ginnie and Wayne, and the conflict, both internal and between them, is strong. As the title reflects, they have nothing in common. The daughter of a Unitarian minister and a Quaker, Ginnie doesn’t like guns (while Wayne owns one) and doesn’t understand why anyone would join the military. As the story unfolds, she finds her pacifism challenged when confronted with increasing threats and a villain who will force her to fight for her life. Meanwhile, Wayne thinks her idealism is foolish, but he takes no pleasure in her gradual awakening to the dangers that exist, wanting to protect her from them. While Ginnie can be a little overly tremulous at times, her feelings are easy to understand given the circumstances. She also redeems herself in some key moments, as when she faces off against the building’s unsympathetic superintendent.
The romance does happen quickly and is sometimes overshadowed by the plot; after all, this is a short book that also has to accommodate a complicated mystery. But it’s tender and sweet enough to be persuasive. The final declarations of love, especially coming from a man who admits he’s not good at expressing such things with words, are wonderful. The book concludes with one of the loveliest last pages I’ve read in a romance novel, ending with both a sweetly romantic note and a beautifully redemptive image that brings the story full circle to the opening.
Dead Opposites is the kind of series book I like the most and seldom find anymore. It’s only 250 pages, but those are 250 pages packed with well-developed characters, strong interpersonal conflict, a neat mystery and a perfect sense of atmosphere. It has that elusive quality I’m often looking for in a series book, where it feels like a short novel and not “just” a series romance. I picked it up again after reading all six December 2005 Harlequin Intrigues, none of which I expect to remember a month from now. Fifteen years after its release, this one remains an old favorite.
Grade: A-
Book Type: Gothic|Romantic Suspense|Series Romance
Sensuality: Kisses
Review Date: 30/11/05
Publication Date: 1990/12
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Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.