Deborah Heal

How Sweet the Sound Deborah Heal

Publisher Marketing: FIELD RESEARCH SITE: Cave-in-Rock, Hardin County, Illinois. GOAL: Discover how 18th century Ohio River pirates preyed on settlers. PERSONAL NOTE: File under interesting job perks-Trevor Dalton, best dating lead in a while. A lot like Brett, only he's not off-limits. Professor Merrideth Randall has an insatiable curiosity about the past. Fortunately, unlike other historians, she has the means to satisfy it-an amazing computer program that lets her rewind time. Her interest turns to the 18th century river pirates of Cave-in-Rock who preyed on the thousands of settlers coming down the Ohio River on flatboats, heading for new lives on the western frontier. For a time, that stretch of the river was a black hole, where whole families disappeared along with their hopes and dreams. And treasures. And the only way for Merrideth to find out what happened to them is to use her software to get inside the head of Samuel Mason, the mastermind behind the attacks. Pirates were not the only outlaws to ever infest Cave-in-Rock. Merrideth's visit there coincides with Hellhound Homecoming, a wild annual gathering of lawless bikers and punk bands. A confrontation with five attendees has her wondering if her curiosity will be the death of her. But God sends a guardian angel to her rescue in the form of Trevor Dalton, a tattooed biker who reminds her of two important truths: you should not judge a person by his exterior (or his mode of transportation) and you should not measure your sins against another person's because you'll both come up short. He has a lot in common with Brett Garrison, her McKendree College colleague who's hoping for more than just a friendship with Merrideth. Yet the two men are as different as night and day. Which one should she choose-the man who is safe or the man with a past?