Fans of action-packed suspense with a heavy dose of romance will find McFarren’s series debut to their taste. Rachel Lyons, four years after her father Sam’s death in a diving accident, is working for a California foundation that provides funds to museums. That work brings her back into contact with treasure hunter Chase Cohen, the man who was with her father when he died and whose presence in a room can still get her pulse racing (“deep inside, she had never stopped yearning for his touch”). Chase now runs Trident Ventures, a firm working to validate a potentially significant maritime discovery in the Sea of Cortez. Dr. Ying, a professor who knew her father, is seeking funding to recover an ancient Chinese vessel and its valuable cargo, including a “priceless relic known as the heart of the dragon.” Rachel gets involved in a dangerous quest to find the sunken ship’s secrets. McFarren offers plenty of plot twists along the way to a dramatic ending that sets up a sequel. (BookLife)