PANDORA'S DAUGHTER
Iris Johansen
St. Martin's Paperbacks
Romantic Suspense
Hardcover: 9780312368043
Paperback: 9780312368050

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Megan Blair is a physician who has lived with her Uncle Phillip ever since her mother's death when Megan was 15. Her life is comfortable and steady, until the night someone in a truck rams her car repeatedly until she is run off the road. Phillip contacts a government agent named Neal Grady to tell him of the attempt on Megan's life.

Grady enters Megan's life --- or, rather, he re-enters it, since he had spent time with Megan and her mother the summer Megan's mother died. Grady watches Megan at the zoo as she spends time with the young son of a friend. Suddenly she hears voices screaming in agony. Pleading illness, she goes home to nap.

Grady must now tell Megan the truth about her life. He appears in her home, talking the protective Phillip into letting him speak with her. He explains to Megan that her mother was a "Pandora," a person with incredible psychic abilities, and that Grady himself has some extrasensory gifts. He reveals to Megan that the voices she heard at the zoo, and that she remembers hearing when she was young, means that she is a "Listener," who can tune into echoes in any place or situation where something terrible has happened.

Megan learns for the first time that her "Uncle" Phillip is not her relative. Grady hired Phillip to watch over her and keep her safe. She is also informed that her mother did not die in an accident. Instead, she was murdered by a man named Molino. Molino believes that Megan's mother killed his son, Stephen, who brutally raped her. As a Pandora, Megan's mother was able to trigger psychic abilities in other people. Although this was sometimes beneficial to the recipient, Stephen had gone mad and killed himself. Molino's bloodthirsty revenge knows no time limits; he has finally tracked Megan down and plans to kill her.

Molino's hit man makes another attempt to kill Megan, but shoots Phillip, who ends up in a coma. Megan, with Grady's help, settles Phillip into a medical facility with a fine coma specialist. As Grady comforts her, memories of the summer when she was 15 and had a crush on him flood her. Little does she know that Grady is also revisiting that summer, when he constantly fought his strong attraction to the beautiful young teen.

In the meantime, Grady needs Megan and her gifts to find a ledger that tracks the whereabouts of a family with powerful psychic abilities, a family that may be related to Megan. The history of the Ledger goes back to the time of the Inquisition. Who has it?

The first step in their search is a trip to Paris so Megan can listen to the echoes of a circus performer who killed himself after Molino attempted to torture information about the Ledger from him. The echoes are a torment for Megan to listen to, but she gleans a clue. However, Molino is on their trail in a deadly cat-and-mouse game across Europe. He wants the Ledger in order to target and kill all the psychics, beginning with Megan --- and he will stop at nothing in order to attain his goal.

Iris Johansen delivers some interesting plot twists and ideas, and she keeps the surprises coming until the very last page. Readers may wish that the protagonists were more fleshed out, particularly Megan, Grady and Molino (secondary characters Harley and Renata are a bit more interesting). Although the plot loses momentum occasionally during lengthy dialogue and romantic scenes, fans of romantic suspense should find PANDORA'S DAUGHTER to be a highly satisfying read.

    --- Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon (terryms2001@yahoo.com)

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