Mary and Brad Johnstone are in Salem, Massachusetts, taking a vacation as they try to patch up their marriage. While they are there they see the sights and end up getting a reading at the psychic fair by a strange man wearing a turban who has a very real looking crystal ball…in it they see many things, including cornfields and corpses. The man freaks them out and makes Brad angry and they leave. Later that night, while visiting a cemetery, Mary disappears and hasn’t been heard from since.

A distraught Brad asks an old friend, Jeremy Flynn (a private eye who used to be a cop and was Brad’s former police partner) if he can help him out. Jeremy agrees. Also helping out is an acquaintance of Jeremy’s, Rowenna Cavanaugh. She is very intuitive and frequently helps the police with their cases. Rowenna has been having many dreams of cornfields and scarecrows recently that have been disturbing her. After she discovers a corpse hung up in a cornfield like a scarecrow she begins to look into the history of the town’s infamous Harvest Man legend…

This was another wonderful read by Heather Graham. It was captivating and atmospheric. The story took place in the fall, near Halloween and Thanksgiving. I liked the main couple (Rowenna and Jeremy) and I found the cast of characters/suspects interesting.

A great read with some scary moments and a good setting, Salem, Massachusetts. ( )

Kendall Montgomery Flynn from the first novel. Kendall and the oldest brother Aidan Flynn are now married and live at the family house outside New Orleans. Rowenna is returning to her home town of Salem, Massachusetts at the behest of a police office friend of hers. Rowenna has helped the police in the past as she seems to be able to put herself in a victim's place and feel what they felt. Jeremy Flynn, an ex-police officer, has been asked by his friend and ex-partner to come help him find his wife who disappeared from a cemetery in Salem. As Jeremy and Rowenna follow clues and dreams their own way, something more sinister is happening in the town of Salem and almost everyone is a suspect.

"Deadly Harvest" is an easy read with a hint on the supernatural with plenty of
romance. ( )

Private investigator and ex-cop Jeremy Flynn goes to Salem, Massachusetts, to help his former partner and friend, Brad, whose wife has mysteriously gone missing. Brad and his wife were vacationing in Salem and visiting one of the historic cemeteries when she disappeared without a trace. Also helping out is Rowenna Cavanaugh who is an acquaintance of Jeremy. She doesn't consider herself a psychic, yet she sometimes feels and knows certain things that can't be explained, and she has proved useful in police investigations in the past. When a body is discovered in a cornfield hung up like a scarecrow, it becomes a possibility that this crime may be connected to Jeremy's friend's missing wife. This seems eerily like it could be the work of the legendary Harvest Man.

This was a wonderful romantic suspense book with a touch of paranormal. The romance between Jeremy and Rowenna was on the easygoing side, but it was the suspense part of the story that I loved. I loved the Salem setting, and Heather Graham always does such a great job with description that I felt as though I was there. I enjoyed learning about the legend of The Harvest Man. The story is very atmospheric and there were some truly spooky moments. Loved the cornfields. The cast of secondary characters were a colorful assortment of people that I enjoyed reading about. This book would be a perfect read for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and the Autumn season. ( )

Jeremy Flynn was quite nice in the first book of the Flynn brothers trilogy, Deadly Night. He's the romantic lead in Deadly Harvest, which means he gets to be a bit of a jerk toward the heroine, Rowena Cavanaugh.

Rowena Cavanaugh is beautiful and well educated, an author with an open mind about the paranormal except for her own psychic abilities. She thinks she's just logically imagining what happened to victims when she tries to 'put herself in their shoes'. Rowena is attracted to Jeremy, but thinks he doesn't like her.

Oh, Jeremy is attracted to her, too, but he's firmly against that paranormal nonsense, although he adores his sister-in-law, Kendall, who used to read Tarot cards, palms, & tea leaves. (If Jeremy is correct about not having a psychic bone in his body, how come he keeps seeing the ghost of a boy he tried to save?)

The action for our leads moves from New Orleans to Rowena's hometown, Salem, Massachusetts. The prologue took place there, covering the disappearance of Mary Johnstone, wife of Jeremy's friend and former partner, Brad.

Poor Brad is suspected of having caused Mary's disappearance. Even her parents think she's dead and he killed her. Brad is convinced Mary is still alive, but fears she won't be anymore by the time she's found. He's also convinced the Devil is in Salem and a mysterious fortuneteller named Damien is the kidnapper. (There's evidence there really was a Damien at the psychic fair in the prologue, even if he hasn't been seen since. I'm sure you can guess Jeremy's reaction to Brad's talk about the Devil.)

Ms. Graham has given Salem a new legend, that of the Harvest Man, who is supposed to have kidnapped and killed women for a couple of centuries now.
Rowena suspects that an individual is making use of that legend, possibly even believing himself to be the Harvest Man.

There are wax figures of four murderers in the [fictional] Eastern Massachusetts Museum of History, where Rowena's friend Daniel is the manager. Numbers one and four seem to have claimed they were the devil. I enjoyed the chapters where Rowena and Daniel researched the legend.

Rowena has been elected this year's Harvest Queen. Salem's officials aren't going to cancel their festival. After all, they think they have their perpetrator in custody. If they're wrong, will Rowena be the next victim?

The killer came as no surprise, but there was a twist I didn't expect. While I didn't like book two as much as book one, it had its moments.

Notes:

See chapter 1 for the Harvest Man chant.

See chapters 2 and 3 for what Aidan and Kendall Flynn have been up to since book one.

In chapter 8 Rowena said Detective Brentwood also believes in justice, along with truth and the American way and all that. I suspect that Ms. Graham also grew up watching reruns of the 1952-1958 live-action TV series, 'Adventures of Superman'. The opening did declare that [disguised as Clark Kent], he fought a never ending battle for truth, justice, and the American way.

See chapter 9 for some Salem history as well as the Harvest Man legend. (There's more about a 20th century killer who apparently thought he was the Harvest Man in chapters 15 & 16.)

Had to smile when Rowena asked if [Thanksgiving] is as American as apple pie in chapter 12. Apple pie definitely came from Europe, although we might be able to claim the invention of chocolate cake.

I'm afraid of one the supporting characters uses a 3-letter slur for homosexuals in chapter 13. ( )

Great book, love how Heather Graham gets these paranormal stories to flow so well ( )