Secret Shadows (Berkley Sensation) [Mass Market Paperback]

In Secret Shadows, Dane White Eagle is an undercover FBI agent. He is hot on the trail of drug dealers using the Lakota Reservation as a cover for other dirty dealings. Dane is furious they're peddling the stuff to his people and wishes to stop it. As he is drawing nearer to the Ecstasy dealers, they move to put a stop to his meddling. Dane returns home to find his 13-year-olds sister, who was dying of cancer, shot with his gun.

Dr. Claire Colby is covering the graveyard shift at the emergency room when Dane's sisters is rushed there. She is the one who pronounces her dead. Dane is arrested for the sister's death and Claire is called to testify against him. With the strength of her testimony Dane is sent to prison. Their paths cross again as Dane is knifed by an inmate and she must save him. Later, after Claire takes a job on the Cold Creek Lakota Reservation, she is surprised to learn Dane is there. He has been freed on a technicality.

Dane is more determined than ever to find the drug lab and the true killers of his sister. Claire becomes involved with Dane's investigation, and finds herself falling for the brooding man, even though she is not certain whether he is innocent or not. Still, she cannot deny the dreams she has begun to have, begun to share with Dane. As Dane and Claire fight to end this evil plaguing the reservation, they cannot fight the passions that arise between them.

The book is simply unforgettable. I read hundreds of books each year, and maybe only a dozen will stay in my heart and mind, that ten years later I will touch the spine of that book and recall all the details so vividly. Secret Shadows is just that sort of a book. Aitken is just not a well-researched writer, she is a Native America, proud of her heritage and it's that power that gives her the magic ability to pen such strong tales depicting the beauty and grim realities of the reservation and the people who have often been denied their rights, their voice. Her prose are fluid, moving the reader through the mystery, the passion.

So take advantage of Berkley Summer push to introduce you to new writers. It's just doesn't get any better than this.