Strangers in the night Book

**Anne Stuart's story**

I was in the mood to read something by Anne Stuart and the short story, DARK JOURNEY, fulfilled my needs. It could have easily been renamed 'Meet Joe Black With Sunglasses'. I was curious to see if this story came out before the movie but apparently the 1998 film was loosely based on 'Death Takes A Holiday' issued in 1934.

'Death' comes to visit Laura while he is on a two-day reprieve from his duties. The entity comes in the human form of Alex Monmort. He had been drawn to this young woman since she was five years old. Diagnosed with a faulty heart, Laura always knew every day was special and could be her last. Alex visited her over the years but it was never her time. Her innocence and sweetness showed him a side of humanity that he hadn't witnessed in hundreds of years. He has returned once again; her father is dying now.

Alex needs her. And wants her. It has been a compulsion but not something he entirely understands.

Laura is surrounded by family at her father's gloomy estate. They were a group of odd ducks with secrets of their own. And one is a murderer and it isn't Alex. Like most stories in an anthology, it suffers from the main characters' lack of development but I knew that would happen before I started reading. At 108 pages, this romantic mystery can easily be read in a short time.