I was rather surprised to find that Larion Wills is the pen name for writer Larriane Wills, a new but prolific author in three genres: romance, sci-fi, and fantasy. Since the change in name is only in the spelling, but not the pronunciation, of her first name and because she writes a great story, I wondered why the author would choose to write under two very similar names. She writes romance exclusively as Larion.

I dipped into Thirteen Souls, one of her romance novels, and was treated to a great contemporary adventure story full of ghosts and buried treasure. The tale is told from two points of view in three sections.

The first is from what the reader comes to know as a con woman assuming the identity of socialite / anthropologist Heather Winstrobe, who is brought in by Gene DuBois to analyze some artifacts found on a small tract of property he owns on a Louisiana plantation before he can continue to develop the land. She finds the artifacts inconsequential but brings in a team to quickly dig through what appears to be a dump, so that construction continues. The reader soon finds that, not only does she have another agenda, meaning locating some buried 18th century marauder loot, but she has a deep attraction to Gene. When the fake Heather begins to have episodes when she’s with Gene, where she appears to be in contact with the spirit of a slave who’d lived on the plantation, and which bring to light some very disturbing DuBois history, the reader isn't sure if she's faking as part of the con or if she really is having paranormal episodes. But the growing belief, for both Gene and the reader, is that these episodes are real.

The second and third parts are written from Gene's point of view as more of the story unfolds. Gene's brother Harlan, who has always been jealous of him, shoots him with a tazer and begins to subject him to unspeakable torture for Harlan's own pleasure and to find out where the old marauder treasure is located. Gene finds many answers to age old questions in the rest of the book, new friends, and even discovers who the fake Heather really is.

The unfolding of the family history and the archaeological aspects were especially exciting to me since I've done some archaeological work before. The author has done her homework well. Even the paranormal elements, with ghosts and mediumship, along with some clairsentience (the ability to "read" objects by touching them), were well done. And I loved the characters! Even the icky, evil ones were so easy to despise, even though you understood why they behaved the way they did.

I did find the concept of socialite / anthropologist odd. I once went to two major anthropological conferences in one year and made some observations: the convention for physical anthropologists had everyone (presenters and attendees) dressed in dark suits, even the women, and the men were all clean cut and close shaven. They all used high tech presentations, stressing science. I felt as if I were at an FBI or NASA conference. The one for archaeologists showed everyone, even with Ivy League educations, dressed in suede and flannel and some even in t-shirts with slogans. And there was an overabundance of long hair and beards! One archaeologist even knuckle-walked down an aisle to take his place at the podium! So, the idea of a prissy socialite being an archaeologist harkens back to Victorian England with the explorers clubs that were so prominent then. Yet there seems to be a reason for the author's choice.

In addition, I felt that the romance was way over the top. There were at least nine very detailed, steamy sex scenes within the first 100 pages, which took place within the first two or three days Gene and the fake Heather knew each other! I did realize that there probably had been a reason for that as the rest of the book unfolded, but still it seemed a bit excessive. However, as most of you know, I don't review romance very much. Though steamy encounters between characters is often the main attraction for romance readers, this story could have stood alone as a great contemporary thriller with fewer of the romantic scenes and still had a solid enough story to keep readers turning pages. That being said, I really enjoyed Thirteen Souls.