Can you believe, in all my years of reading books, I have never read a suspense novel? I have purposely avoided them since I don't go in for all of that cops and robbers kind of stuff. Nope, I don't watch CSI, never saw NYPD Blue or Law & Order. The closest I ever came to watching a cop show was Barney Miller, and I'm not sure that even counts.

That background might explain why when Sonja Baines' Soul Haven crossed my computer as a suspense novel, my first instinct was to run the other way and ask to be reassigned to something a little more my type, like an erotic romance. But then I thought: how bad can it be? The truth is, it was pretty awesome.

Ms. Baines has created a well-developed story with two likeable characters based around an unlikely location, a homeless shelter. I've worked in shelters before so this setting hit a chord with me and kept me reading in those first few pages when I might have been tempted to remain a suspense novel virgin. I had no idea what to expect from Soul Haven and I was pleasantly surprised at what I got.

Renata Bowers is a brand new cop on the force and she gets a lot of excitement on the night shift when two fellow cops bring in an unfortunate looking man and proceed to beat him within an inch of his life. Renata knows this is against the rules, but one of her superiors tells her the man is a known, but not convicted, cop killer. She still isn't sure that the man deserves the beating he's gotten. Besides, he doesn't look like a killer. In fact, there is something very human about him, a look in his eyes that tells Renata she needs to know more. The question is how do you find out these things when you're the new kid on the block without people getting suspicious?

Kale Tyrell wishes the lady cop would just leave him alone. The more attention she pays him, the worse he gets beaten and it's already hard for him to take a breath with his broken ribs. Kale knows she's new on the job, but he can't understand why she doesn't hate him like everyone else. They say he killed a cop; he's sure she's been told the same lies as everyone else. If only he could find out who really killed his wife and that cop, then maybe he'd stand a chance to make it through one week without a beating. Maybe he'd be able to put the pain and loss of his wife behind him and move on. But after all these years he still has no leads to the killer, knows nothing of what really happened that night. And now he has a new lady cop sniffing around where she doesn't belong. Just his luck. Bad luck.

Ms. Baines unfolds an exciting story of one good cop trying to find the truth and save a man who has been wrongly accused. The budding romance between the cop and the drifter adds an emotional dimension that I wasn't expecting in a suspense novel. It was a welcome addition for me, the suspense novel newcomer.

Soul Haven is a fast-paced book with a high level of readability and an interesting cast of characters and settings. Though I had an inkling of how the novel would play out, I was caught off guard by several of the twists the story took and the way the novel ultimately ended.

If you are a fan of suspense, my guess is you will enjoy Soul Haven. If you are like me and you've never tried a suspense novel before, give this one a shot. It is a fun read and a satisfying story.
  
Reviewed By Sabine Maurier
© September 2007