Caroline Verlaine, a young widow, comes to work at the estate hoping to discover the cause of the mysterious disappearance of her sister, who had been studying the nearby Roman ruins. Caroline found her employers a strange family, haunted by tragedies of the past, scarred by distrust. Yet she found herself irresistibly attracted to them - especially to the family's dark, moody young scion. But not until she had retraced her sister's fatal last steps could she answer the crucial questions about the family's past - and her own future.

    At the very instant that lovely young Amanda Smith first gazed at the swiftly approaching ramparts through the rain-streaked car window, a sheet of lightning split the sky, and a sudden, ominous chill shivered through her body. Amanda had accepted the opportunity to come stay at this isolated Swedish castle as a chance for romance and excitement. Why now did she see it not as a welcoming home--but as a deadly lure . . . or a waiting tomb . . .

    Her beauty graced fashion magazines across America. She was married to the handsome, successful Bart Valentim. She never imagined she would be suddenly widowed and left alone with a fifteen-year-old stepson, her only inheritance a forbidding estate on the Portuguese coast. But there was evidence the legendary Valentim millions lay hidden there yet.After arriving at Costa Demonio, Nell and young Chris soon found themselves swept up in a world as treacherous as the savage whirlpool that gave the castle its forbidding name. But as Nell probed the dark secret of her legacy, she felt her heart reawaken to the hope of new love. She was drawn to the mysterious Damon and lured by Alexi's seductive charm. Still, she dared trust no one... not until she knew who loved her and who wished to see her dead....

    She was a stranger and afraid.A legacy from an uncle she had never known brought Suzy Benson to the sunswept isle of Hydra, where the pretty American girl hoped to begin a new life in a new land.Little did she realize the secret horror of the beautiful old house that now was hers...the reason for the hate in her proud aunt's dark eyes...or why every islander was Suzy's enemy...Too late Suzy Benson discovered she was heiress to the evil of a guilt-ridden past -- trapped in a nightmare world where she desperately struggled to tell friend from foe, and lover from murderer...