The following review was contributed by: CAROLYN HOWARD -JOHNSON

Here is a modern mystery with enough sexual anticipation to please the most avid reader of romances and enough sound writing to please readers who prefer more in their reading fare.

A lovely young woman who has been well-taught to distrust finds herself living in a home painted in her sister’s colors, literally. The lovely house, situated on the Pacific coast in Mendocino, is a subtle metaphor for what it feels like to feel as if one’s destiny has been molded by another or to live in the shadow of someone else. Cat Madoc carries many psychological scars at her sister’s hand and now suspects that her death is not as accidental as the local authorities assume. She meets a man of courage, an architect carrying as much emotional baggage as she, and the story is off to a gallop.

Linda Morelli is an excellent writer and would be regardless of genre. She writes dialogue well. Her characters are real, their motivation well planned. The scenes, thankfully, are well grounded for the places in Shadow of Doubt are as memorable as anything else in the book. She also manages point of view well. This leads me to wish that she had not italicized her characters’ thoughts. A tool sometimes used by authors who don’t understand point of view, writers often use italics much like those with broken ankles use crutches. I have read romances that occupy space on the New York Times Best Seller list that are no better than Morelli’s newest novel. She is ready to discard all such feeble remedies.