Lesley Kern is a young actress, with roots in Utah but currently living in California as she pursues her fledgling career. With several supporting roles under her belt, she has just finished filming a made-for-TV movie and is now headed to Utah for some rest and relaxation. With both the Olympics and the Sundance Film Festival just ahead, she's hoping for a nice, relaxing time.

Outside of Park City, Lesley's family has owned a house and some land for several generations. No one has lived there for a long time. When Lesley learns that a local developer wants to purchase the land, she is undecided as to whether she wants to sell or not. Her visit to her house, however, raises some questions. There appears to be some damage caused by local wildlife, and there are other, inexplicable problems that require her attention.

Determined to fix it up while she's in Utah, she contacts a local man, Jim Shepherd, to evaluate the damage. The attraction is immediate and powerful, and Jim finds himself wanting to help Lesley, to spend more time with her.

Several problems. First, the house seems to be "haunted" -- creaks, moans, and even ghostly appearances send a chill through Lesley. The local developer who wants to purchase the property is a sleazy operator, maybe even dangerous. And, in fact, the whole town seems to be conspiring against her, from the local real estate agent to the employees at the hotel where she's staying.

As the story develops, we learn more about the characters, prominent among them Lesley herself, Jim, and Jim's mother and foster daughter. And as the relationship between Lesley and Jim grows, so does the mystery surrounding the house and its supernatural phenomena.

The story line in Voice in the Night is interesting and fast moving. However, the story suffers a bit from a lack of real character development. Many of the players lack depth, with the author resorting to more predictable stereotypes rather than digging deeply into their conflicted lives. And make no mistake -- their lives are conflicted, in particular Jim's. We do learn about his own inner struggle, but the resolution to this struggle was just too simplistic for my taste.

Without revealing the ending, I should mention that the book closes on something of a question mark, a nice touch in a romantic mystery.

In the end, I enjoyed reading this story. i think other readers will enjoy it, too. Andersen shows a real talent for moving the story along. I'm guessing there will be another book from his pen in the near future. With more attention to the complexities of character, I'm betting the next book could be very good indeed.

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Jeff Needle
March 16, 2006