The Forbidden by Heather Graham – a Review

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Description:
She is someone’s darkest desire

Playing the victim of a vampire king on an island off New Orleans is actress Avalon Morgan’s creepiest role to date. It’s also scary good fun—until the victim of a real killer is discovered on set, laid out for all to see. With production shut down, Avalon can’t stop thinking about the chilling crime scene, or Grayson Avery, the investigator working the case.

With a rising body count and zero leads, Gray can’t help but be impressed by Avalon’s amateur sleuthing, which takes her to the darkest corners of the internet, where killers confess their crimes. One such account is a dead ringer for the murders, but when the evidence vanishes, nobody believes Avalon—except for Gray. With no one they can trust, Avalon and Gray are determined to unbury the truth at any cost, but a return to the deadly island could be the last thing they do.

Review:

The Forbidden by Heather Graham is the 34^th book in her Krewe of Hunters series.  I have only read a few books from this series, but they do read very well as a standalone; I plan on reading more; as I enjoy Graham’s other books/series.

Avalon Morgan, our heroine, is an actress and is part of a group of actors working on a film, with most of them being friends, and working with the director for other films.  Avalon has just completed a scene with her made to look beautiful lying on a tomb, as it is a scary vampire movie.  When they break for the day, Avalon takes a walk around the island with her fellow actor friend, and they discover the body of their makeup artist friend, who was laid out exactly like the scene Avalon had just done.

The group of friends gathered together, upset about the muder, as the police questioned everyone, and shutting down production until the killer can be found.

Gray Avery, our hero, is the lead investigator, who is part of the Krewe of Hunters team that works on supernatural investigations.  Gray immediately recognizes that Avalon has unique abilities to see the dead, which he can too. At first, she refuses to talk about it, but in time she begins to trust Gray and together they work on trying to find clues; especially with Avalon insisting none of her friends committed the murder.  

Gray has his team checking out possible similar murders, and Avalon, being very good doing research on the internet, discovers the dark web, with people describing their fantasy murder; which is too close to the real thing.  Gray also becomes worried that the killer or killers are focusing on Avalon, as she fits the description of previous murders. He makes sure that Avalon comes with him at various locations, since she knows how to talk to ghosts, and he keeps an eye on her.  During this period, both Avalon and Gray find their attraction to each other becoming serious, and their chemistry was sizzling.

What follows is a tense thriller that will have them not only looking at the film crew, but also the owners of the island, who also hang around the area.  Gray suspects that there is more than one killer, who are very dangerous and evil.  To say too much more would be spoilers, and you need to read this from start to finish, as there are some twists and surprises.  The wild tense ending as we raced to the climax, had me holding my breath to see who will survive. 

The Forbidden is an exciting, intense, suspenseful, dark story of murder, with a nice romance, and lots of police procedurals. Once again, Heather Graham gives us a wild, mindboggling thriller, that kept our attention from start to finish.  I did like that both Gray and Avalon, as they made a great couple.  If you like intense supernatural thrillers, which is written so very well by Graham, then I suggest you read The Forbidden.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher