Windwalker »

Natasha Mostert is South African. She grew up in Pretoria and Johannesburg but currently lives in London with her husband, Frederick. She still keeps an apartment in the university town of Stellenbosch in the Cape province.

Justine is a photographer with a tragic past. When she takes a job as thecaretaker for an old Palladian mansion, she finds herself becoming obsessed with the last family to own the house — particularly the oldest son. Driven to photograph the house and the family's personal possessions, Justine is more intrigued than frightened to discover strange images appearing in her pictures, ghostly images she knows she didn't record. Even more unsettling, it seems like someone is stalking her, watching her.

Halfway around the world, Adam writes letters to a woman he's dreamed about since he was a child, but has never met. One day he sees her picture in a magazine — it's Justine. That she's living in his old family home is a coincidence he cannot ignore. Drawn to his mystery woman, Adam leaves his exile in South Africa and risks all to satisfy his yearning for her.

Adam believes he and Justine are truly soul mates — but if neither of them are able to overcome their pasts, how can they have a future?

Publishers Weekly

In Mostert's second novel (after The Midnight Side)-an adept mix of suspense, romance and the supernatural-Justine, a troubled and self-destructive photographer, becomes the caretaker for an abandoned English mansion with a dark secret: nine years earlier, one of the inhabitants murdered his own brother. Justine is both horrified and intrigued by the house's history, and as she begins to research it further, she feels an inexplicable connection between herself and Adam, the murderer. Adam, who's been living for the past nine years as a professional diamond diver in a remote African village, is a strong believer in destiny, and the moment he sees a photograph of Justine, he's certain that they're soul mates. The overarching story of these two lost souls gravitating toward one another contains many subplots, including a local minister/stalker who's obsessed with Justine and an over-the-top villain who enjoys clubbing baby seals. Though these secondary story lines tend to be unconvincing, they ensure that Justine and Adam's occasionally tedious love story is always action-packed. Agent, Robert Gottlieb. (Apr.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.