Artist Emma Beck discovered a folder after her father died. In it was a record from a detective who was detailing the circumstances of Emma's adoption and the death of her birth mother.

Up to that moment, Emma had not realized she'd been adopted.

When she visited her birthplace, Emma found an old derelict house that both said "home" to her and nearly frightened her to death. She'd been painting bits of this house in her art throughout her career. Then she discovers that Mike, her contractor, had also figured prominently in her illustrations.

As the story unfolds, Emma hears strange sounds in the house, finds her paints messed with while she's been sleeping, etc.

All in all, Night Echoes is a fast-paced, hard-to-put-down thriller that could well defend a place with mainline thriller novels. It's also a paranormal that doesn't count on lycanthropy, vampires or any similar character to keep it fresh.

I regretted when Holly Lisle left writing fantasy for the romance novel field, and yet I have read almost every romance she's written and enjoyed them. This comes from someone who doesn't particularly care for romance novels. Lisle so seamlessly blends the romance in with the storyline that it's a natural part of the flow.

Lisle also has a way of creating sympathetic characters that pull you in because you care about their lives and want to see them survive -- if not succeed and be happy. Emma and Mike, and to a lesser extent, Cara, are more than just constructs.

And the house itself becomes a being in this story. Lisle's scene setting really takes you there even if you've never seen a Southern Gothic-style home before.

I'd definitely consider her as someone to study if you are interested in learning how to pull in and hook a reader with subtle foreshadowing. Lisle's a pro and she's a pleasure to read no matter what she writes.