I hope we see more of Brenda Strange, author Patty Henderson’s high-powered attorney cum victim cum psychically-abled cum private investigator. Oh yeah, and she looks just like Princess Diana. Seriously.

I know the combination sounds a bit, well, odd, but it makes sense if you start at the beginning.

For --- in the beginning we meet Brenda all excited because "this is the day!" that she’s going to make Jr. Partner in a prestigious New Jersey law firm. But then, tragedy strikes the office, and she has to reevaluate her life’s goals and desires after recovering from a vicious shooting, and a near death experience.

"Mr. Cuenca, I can’t fully explain this to you and I hope I don't come off sounding like some flake, but the house just seems …" She paused for a moment, trying to find the right words, but couldn't. "It just feels right Mr. Cuenca. It’s almost like it needs me."

She and her other half, Tina, buy what is to be a getaway vacation home in Tampa, Florida, an area surrounded by an interesting cast of characters, with secrets, some of them deadly, others with possible designs on one or the other of the happy couple, and many of them related to the purchase, a home with a name of its own, "Malfour House."

The couple begins work on fixing up the house (or, to be more precise, on hiring others to do it for them!). However, money does become an issue because Brenda has it and Tina doesn’t.

The couple has to work on reconciling Tina’s personal desire to support herself, which means returning to her job in New Jersey, with Brenda’s ability to never have to work again as Brenda becomes more and more attached to Malfour House, and the secrets it holds.

They also seem to be drawn to different interests, Brenda towards the mysterious Malfour House, Tina to the Tampa social set as she prepares to return to what is supposed to be her and Brenda’s permanent residence.

Will the couple continue to work together on their relationship, as their lives seem to take divergent paths? Was there a murder at Malfour House almost 80 years ago? Who was murdered and why? Does the murderer or any of their accomplices still live? What do any of the strange occurrences at Malfour House now have to do with the mystery? And is Brenda really seeing ghosts from long ago?

Read and find and, then sit back and wait with me for the next one.

Deborah Levinson
Community activist and Web Maven of Gay/Lesbian Issues