(Publisher’s Weekly, Oct. 20)

In this outstanding supernatural thriller from bestseller Burke (Kidnapped), her first venture nto paranormal territory, Tyler Hawthorne, a British officer wounded at Waterloo, receives a memento mori ring on the battlefield from “Messenger” Lucien Adrian deVille, Lord Varre.  The ring rants the wearer immortality, but in exchange Tyler must forever comfort the dying.  Tyler also gets Shade, a black cemetery dog, for protection.  In the present, a salvage diver uncovers Adrian’s remains in a ship sunk in the Caribbean in 1815.  A resurrected Adrian uses the diver to help locate Tyler in Los Angeles, where Tyler is attending to a leukemia patient.  Tyler, an ageless 24, has also fallen for wealthy Amanda Clarke, who’s haunted by family members killed in an accident that she survived.  Mutual attraction and a dedication to do good unite the pair against the evil Adrian.  Shade lends a distinctive Dean Koontzian flavor in the action, whille Charlaine Harris fans will appreciate Amanda’s ghostly abilities.  (This title will be available in January 2009)