From Publishers Weekly
Joanna Flynn and Caroline McKenna have more in common than their age, 29, and slim, fine-boned beauty. Though separated by 3000 miles, each suffers a fatal accident at exactly the same moment. Joanna instantly returns to life, however, surviving electrocution by a downed power line in Atlanta, while Caroline sleeps forever in a Cliffside, Ore., graveyard. Or does she? Bits of her seem to have taken up residence in Joanna, who now feels an inexplicable urge to wear skirts instead of pants and has a sudden hankering for secondhand cigarette smoke. More tellingly, she finds her own sleep wracked by a recurring nightmare that delivers a haunting message. Caroline's young daughter, Regan, is in danger, and only Joanna can save her. The premise makes for harrowing good fun, and Joanna is appealingly plucky and true to her mission as she gallops into Cliffside to probe the mystery that was Caroline. Was the dead woman good, bad or an unsettling mix of both? Did her husband love her or hate her? Was her death an accident or murder? Romance bonds Joanna to handsome Cliffside sheriff Griffin Cavanaugh, despite mutual suspicions. Alas, Hooper (Amanda) relies on sentence fragments to suggest drama, question marks to promote uncertainty and italics to invoke the processes of consciousness. So, though they will shiver and shudder, readers won't enjoy the chill as much as they might have. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Following her successful transition to hardcover with Amanda (Bantam, 1995), Hooper weighs in with another gothic romance. A near-fatal accident leaves Joanna Flynn with a residue of terrible nightmares, and she is even more alarmed when two strangers call her Caroline?the name of a woman who died on the day of Joanna's accident.Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
A car accident in Atlanta and a simultaneous one in Oregon involve two women who resemble each other to the point of twinship. Caroline dies, but Joanna is left with a recurring dream that takes her to the scene of the other accident, 3000 miles away. This novel would make a satisfying abridgment even though Valerie Leonard gives a spirited reading. Leonard's verve carries through all of the material, which is often recapitulated. But because of this repetition between actions, one tends to forget which character is which.The narrator colors the scenes well; however, the suspense of the plot would be heightened by a shortened version. J.P. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
Joanna Flynn was incredibly lucky. Twice in one day she almost died on a stretch of highway, but she counted her blessings and went on with her life. Then the dreams began. Dreams of a young girl, a windswept sea, a signpost saying "Cliffside," and an urgent, wordless plea that began to haunt Joanna's waking hours. When she is mistaken twice on the streets of Atlanta for a woman named Caroline, Joanna uses clues from her dreams and her skills as a research librarian to track down the coastal town of Cliffside, Oregon, where a woman named Caroline died in a car accident on the same day Joanna had hers. She travels to Cliffside hoping her resemblance to Caroline will lead her to an explanation for her dreams, but she does not expect to uncover dark secrets from Caroline's past, secrets that now endanger Joanna. Following her best-seller Amanda (1995), Hooper has crafted another solid story to keep readers enthralled until the last page is turned. Melanie Duncan


From Kirkus Reviews
Paperback veteran Hooper comes through with thrills, chills, and plenty of romance in her second hardcover (after Amanda, 1995), this time with an energetic--if formulaic--murder mystery with a clever twist. One summer evening Joanna Flynn's car spins out of control; miraculously, she survives without a scratch. But minutes later, before she's removed from the wreckage, her foot comes in contact with a fallen power line and she's electrocuted. Again, although her heart briefly stops, she survives. Then, on the same night as her two near-death experiences, Joanna has a vivid and distressing dream. She's by the ocean. There is a colorful carousel horse, a sense of urgency, a painting on an easel, a sign with the name of a town: Cliffside. She keeps having the dream. Conveniently, Joanna is a research librarian, and it doesn't take her long to uncover an eerie coincidence. In Cliffside, Oregon, 3,000 miles from Joanna's home, Caroline Mckenna, a woman exactly Joanna's age, died in a car accident on the same day of Joanna's accident. Stranger still, the picture in the obituary suggests that Caroline could have been Joanna's twin sister. Without further ado, she leaves Atlanta for Cliffside, where she takes temporary residence in The Inn, the town's only hotel, with the intention of figuring out what connection there is--if any--between Caroline's accident and her own brush with death. Since she so closely resembles a recently deceased (and prominent) citizen, she's the subject of considerable speculation and gossip; the ruggedly handsome Sheriff Griffin Cavanaugh takes a particular interest in her. Sure enough, just as Joanna suspected, Cliffside has plenty of secrets, and the circumstances surrounding Caroline's death are highly suspicious. Together with the sheriff, the spirited Joanna sets out to vindicate Caroline, along the way finding more than she ever bargained for. Nothing groundbreaking here, but Joanna is a likably quirky heroine, and the suspense is sustained admirably right up to the very end. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Review
"Kay Hooper comes through with thrills, chills, and plenty of romance, this time with an energetic murder mystery with a clever twist.  The suspense is sustained admirably right up to the very end."


"Harrowing good fun. Readers will shiver and shudder.  Kay Hooper...knows how to serve up a latter-day gothic that will hold readers in its brooding grip."


"Kay Hooper is a master storyteller."
--Tami Hoag, bestselling author of Guilty as Sin and

"Joanna is appealingly plucky and true to her mission as she probes the mystery that was Caroline."


"Hooper is a multitalented writer whose stories always pack a tremendous punch."
--Iris Johansen, bestselling author of The Ugly Duckling and Long After Midnight


Review
"Kay Hooper comes through with thrills, chills, and plenty of romance, this time with an energetic murder mystery with a clever twist.  The suspense is sustained admirably right up to the very end."


"Harrowing good fun. Readers will shiver and shudder.  Kay Hooper...knows how to serve up a latter-day gothic that will hold readers in its brooding grip."


"Kay Hooper is a master storyteller."
--Tami Hoag, bestselling author of Guilty as Sin and

"Joanna is appealingly plucky and true to her mission as she probes the mystery that was Caroline."


"Hooper is a multitalented writer whose stories always pack a tremendous punch."
--Iris Johansen, bestselling author of The Ugly Duckling and Long After Midnight


Book Description
Joanna Flynn was lucky to be alive. Twice in a matter of minutes she almost died on a patch of oil-slicked highway. But when the doctors told her that she would suffer no lasting effects, they were wrong. For that night the dream began...It was only of a house perched high above the sea, of a ticking clock and the lingering scent of roses. Yet night after night it awoke Joanna with a sense of panic. Its terror lingered throughout her days, urging her to do something--but what?Then two strangers on the street called her Caroline, and Joanna knew she had to find an explanation for what was happening, or she'd lose her mind. What she finally uncovered was an obituary for a woman named Caroline McKenna--a woman who looked enough like her to be her twin, a woman who was killed in a car accident on the same day Joanna should have perished.Now her torturous nightmares and a tenuous connection have brought Joanna three thousand miles across country to the town where Caroline lived--and died. Almost everyone has stories to tell about Cliffside's leading lady, and yet no one seems to have known her. Was she the shy wife or the seductress of men? The devoted mother or the selfish beauty?Too soon Joanna realizes that it's not her sanity at stake, but her life. For unraveling the mystery of Caroline means uncovering the secrets in this picturesque town, secrets someone may have killed to hide. And that someone appears all too willing to kill again.


From the Publisher
"Kay Hooper comes through with thrills, chills, and plenty of romance, this time with an energetic murder mystery with a clever twist. The suspense is sustained admirably right up to the very end."
"Harrowing good fun. Readers will shiver and shudder. Kay Hooper...knows how to serve up a latter-day gothic that will hold readers in its brooding grip."
"Kay Hooper is a master storyteller."
--Tami Hoag, bestselling author of Guilty as Sin and A Thin Dark Line"Joanna is appealingly plucky and true to her mission as she probes the mystery that was Caroline."
"Hooper is a multitalented writer whose stories always pack a tremendous punch."
--Iris Johansen, bestselling author of The Ugly Duckling and Long After Midnight


From the Inside Flap
Joanna Flynn was lucky to be alive. Twice in a matter of minutes she almost died on a patch of oil-slicked highway.  But when the doctors told her that she would suffer no lasting effects, they were wrong.  For that night the dream began...

It was only of a house perched high above the sea, of a ticking clock and the lingering scent of roses. Yet night after night it awoke Joanna with a sense of panic. Its terror lingered throughout her days, urging her to do something--but what?

Then two strangers on the street called her Caroline, and Joanna knew she had to find an explanation for what was happening, or she'd lose her mind.  What she finally uncovered was an obituary for a woman named Caroline McKenna--a woman who looked enough like her to be her twin, a woman who was killed in a car accident on the same day Joanna should have perished.

Now her torturous nightmares and a tenuous connection have brought Joanna three thousand miles across country to the town where Caroline lived--and died.  Almost everyone has stories to tell about Cliffside's leading lady, and yet no one seems to have known her.  Was she the shy wife or the seductress of men?  The devoted mother or the selfish beauty?

Too soon Joanna realizes that it's not her sanity at stake, but her life. For unraveling the mystery of Caroline means uncovering the secrets in this picturesque town, secrets someone may have killed to hide. And that someone appears all too willing to kill again.


Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
"Lady, are you all right?"

She looked through the glassless window into a stranger's concerned face and heard an uncertain laugh emerge from her mouth.

"Yeah.  Can you believe it?"

"No," he replied frankly, a grin tugging at his lips.  "You ought to be in about a million pieces, lady.  This has got be the luckiest day of your life."

"Tell me about it." She shifted slightly adding, "But I can hardly move, and I can't reach the door handle.  Can you get it open?"

The stranger, a middle-aged man with the burly shoulders that come of a lifetime's hard work, yanked experimentally on her door.  "Nope.  There isn't a mark on this door, but it's been compressed in the front and back, and it's stuck tight.  We're gonna need the Jaws of Life, sure enough.  Don't worry, though--the rescue squad and paramedics are on their way."

Distant sirens were getting louder, but even so she felt a chill of worry.  "I had a full tank of gas.  You don't think--"

"I don't smell anything," he reassured her.  "And I've worked in garages most of my life.  Don't worry.  By the way, my name is Jim.  Jim Smith, believe it or not."

"It's a day to believe anything.  I'm Joanna.  Nice to meet you, Jim."

He nodded.  "Same here, Joanna.  You're sure you're okay?  No pain anywhere?"

"Not even a twinge."  She looked past his shoulder to watch other motorists slipping and sliding down the bank toward her, and swallowed hard when she saw just how far her car had rolled.  "My God.  I should be dead, shouldn't I?"

Jim looked back and briefly studied the wide path of flattened brush and churned-up earth, then returned his gaze to her and smiled.  "Like I said, this seems to be your lucky day."

Joanna looked once more at the car crumpled so snugly around her, and shivered.  As close as she ever wanted to come...

Within five minutes, the rescue squad and paramedics arrived, all of them astonished but pleased to find her unhurt.  Jim backed away to allow the rescue people room to work, joining the throng of onlookers scattered down the bank, and Joanna realized only then that she was the center of quite a bit of attention.

"I always wanted to be a star," she murmured.

The nearest paramedic, a brisk woman of about Joanna's age wearing a name badge that said E. Mallory, chuckled in response.  "Word's gotten around that you haven't a scratch.  Don't be surprised if the fourth estate shows up any minute."

Joanna was about to reply to that with another light comment, but before she could open her mouth, the calm of the moment was suddenly, terribly, shattered.  There was a sound like a gunshot, a dozen voices screamed, "Get back!" and Joanna turned her gaze toward the windshield to see what looked like a thick black snake with a fiery head falling toward her out of the sky.

Then something slammed into her with the unbelievable force of a runaway train, and everything went black.

There was no sense of time passing, and Joanna didn't feel she had gone somewhere else.  She felt...suspended, in a kind of limbo.  Weightless, content, she drifted in a peaceful silence.  She was waiting for something, she knew that.  Waiting to find out something.  The silence was absolute, but gradually the darkness began to abate, and she felt a gentle tug.  She turned, or thought she did, and moved in the direction of the soft pull.

But almost immediately, she was released, drifting once more as the darkness deepened again.  And she had a sudden sense that she was not alone, that someone shared the darkness with her.  She felt a feather-light touch, so fleeting she wasn't at all sure of it, as though someone or something had brushed past her.

Don't let her be alone.

Joanna heard nothing, yet the plea was distinct in her mind, and the emotions behind it were nearly overwhelming.  She tried to reach out toward that other, suffering presence, but before she could, something yanked at her sharply.

"Joanna? Joanna! Come on, Joanna, open your eyes!"

That summons was an audible one, growing louder as she felt herself pulled downward.  She resisted for an instant, reluctant, but then fell in a rush until she felt the heaviness of her own body once more.

Instantly, every nerve and muscle she possessed seemed on fire with pain, and she groaned as she forced open her eyes.

A clear plastic cup over her face, and beyond it a circle of unfamiliar faces breaking into grins.  And beyond them a clear blue summer sky decorated with fleecy white clouds.  She was on the ground.  What was she doing on the ground?

"She's back with us," one of the faces said back over his shoulder to someone else.  "Let's get her on the stretcher." Then, to her, "You're going to be all right, Joanna.  You're going to be just fine."

Joanna felt her aching body lifted.  She watched dreamily as she floated past more faces.  Then a vaguely familiar one appeared, and she saw it say something to her, something that sunk in only some time later as she rode in a wailing ambulance.

Definitely your lucky day.  You almost died twice.

Her mind clearing by that time, Joanna could only agree with Jim's observation.  How many people, after all, survived one near-death experience?  Not many.  Yet here she was, whole and virtually unharmed--if you discounted the fact that the only part of her body that didn't ache was the tip of her nose.

Still, she was very much alive, and incredibly grateful.

At the hospital, she was examined, soothed, and medicated.  She would emerge from the day's incredible experiences virtually unscathed, the doctors told her.  She had one burn mark on her right ankle where the electricity from the power line had arced between exposed metal and her flesh, and she'd be sore for a while both from the shock that had stopped her heart and from the later efforts to start it again.

She was a very lucky young lady and should suffer no lasting effects from what had happened to her; that was what they said.

But they were wrong.  Because that was the night the dreams began.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Joanna Flynn was lucky to be alive. Twice in a matter of minutes she almost died on a patch of oil-slicked highway. But when the doctors told her that she would suffer no lasting effects, they were wrong. For that night the dream began...." "It was only of a house perched high above the sea, of a ticking clock and the lingering scent of roses. Yet night after night it awoke Joanna with a sense of panic. Its terror lingered throughout her days, urging her to do something - but what? Then two strangers on the street called her Caroline, and Joanna knew she had to find an explanation for what was happening, or she'd lose her mind." "What she finally uncovered was an obituary for a woman named Caroline McKenna - a woman who looked enough like her to be her twin, a woman who was killed in a car accident on the same day Joanna should have perished. Now her torturous nightmares and a tenuous connection have brought Joanna three thousand miles across country to the town where Caroline lived - and died. Almost everyone has stories to tell about Cliffside's leading lady, and yet no one seems to have known her. Was she the shy wife or the seductress of men? The devoted mother or the selfish beauty?" "Too soon Joanna realizes that it's not her sanity at stake, but her life. For unraveling the mystery of Caroline means uncovering the secrets in this picturesque town, secrets someone may have killed to hide. And that someone appears all to willing to kill again.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

After a near-death experience, Joanna Flynn may be playing host to a not-so-kindred lost soul. (Oct.)

Library Journal

Following her successful transition to hardcover with Amanda (Bantam, 1995), Hooper weighs in with another gothic romance. A near-fatal accident leaves Joanna Flynn with a residue of terrible nightmares, and she is even more alarmed when two strangers call her Carolinethe name of a woman who died on the day of Joanna's accident.

AudioFile