Buried Secrets

by Evelyn Vaughn

HE TURNED HER QUIET LIFE UPSIDE DOWN

Zack Lorenzo was a big-city P.I. specializing in the paranormal and hell-bent on unearthing secrets Josephine James had tried too hard to forget. As he focused intently on fighting an evil he couldn't identify, his chivalry was overbearing, his kisses maddening and his questions too dangerous….

Zack had promised to protect her, but Jo was no damsel in distress–she was the town sheriff! However, she was also a woman who'd been too afraid to face the past until this stranger walked into her life, took her into his arms and made her want to start living again….

256 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Evelyn Vaughn is one of the nom-de-plume used by southern author Yvonne Jocks. Yes, the pun of E. Vaughn being her first name, Yvonne, is deliberate!

Reviews

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

SIM #1205

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Zack - married his high school sweatheart - a Chicago policeman (as was family) - his 23-year old wife went back to college, fell in the a paranormal group call the Life Force Club, died in bathtub of mild heartattack - when visiting grave, a student Cecil discovered her coffin was empty - Zack becomes PI and partners with Cecil as they investigate paranormal and tracking the Life Force and other member's deaths across the country - currently investigating a walking corpse that disappeared from the morgue - he feels guilty for not protecting his wife, for not being home when she needed him - Zack contacts Jo

Sheriff Josephine Jo James - parents died when she was 15 - she tried different things and was a licensed blaster (tnt/explosives) - 5 years earlier in mining cave there was a cavein - 2 men dead, boyfriend hurt, the 2 dead men 'awoke' and attacked, her boyfriend tried to help fend them off & hurt more but they got away, then he died, then he came back to life and other 2 found her, she used her explosives to defend herself & woke up in hospital, still dazed told a reporter about zombies, but once awake told self and others must be a hallucination - trained to be a cop, but had trouble on city force as men's protective ways bothered her, so took isolated job as sheriff in Spurs Texas where she withdrew - until Zack showed up...

and she felt herself breathing for the first time in 5 years, she felt alive... her deputy arrested Zack for speeding, he was on his way to talk with her, and she felt herself breathe ...

she sends him on his way, then after a nightmare about the cave, decides it's time to talk... and she and Zack begin to work together... they both struggle with depending on other people... he wants to protect her, she wants him to see her as competent and does not want him harmed protecting her.... they are attracted to one another...

two other zombies were reported in the area - they interview dozen plus magical persons, vodoun, wiccans, witches, shamans, egyptian pet mummifiers, etc. nature is in an uproar after each death - snow, rain, dust storm - rattle snakes are running rampant - the town nurse practioner (no doctors of their own) is a wiccan - many tell of awareness of evil, and a few tell Jo & Zack that it can only be defeated by them, they are good, they have love...and Jo's friendship with her grows - and she helps where she can... then Cecil shows up to help...

and it ends up that the egyptian mummifier who dabbles in other magics is the culprit - he has been absorbing deaths by taking the souls and ashes of the people through the Life Force group - his wife's image comes to Jo and to Zack a few times... and once they succumb to their passions Jo declares to his wife the he now belongs to her...

and they finally track him to a cave - and though Zack wants her gone, and thinks he can send her away because of her fear of caves, he also knows that to be fully herself she must confront her fear and join him; they fight through the sand/illusion souls of the Life Force people, including his wife... then they find the bad guy who is making his bid for immortality with the zombie bodies - his power is from a magic mirror that contains the soul - Zack cannot break the mirror alone, but when Jo makes her wayto him (she was injured) and says she loves him, and they bothtake the rock, and the mirror breaks, bad guy dies... snakes slither quietly out of the cave...

and as they join up with Ashley & Cecil, they discuss their future and their compromises... ahhhh