Merfolk feature in this romantic suspense Dark Seas series. I hadn't read the earlier Siren's Secret but swiftly picked up on the situation. A mermaid who walks on land, covering her throat gills with a scarf, runs a Gulf coast maritime salvage operation, rescuing treasures from shipwrecks and selling the items to land-dwellers. The SIREN'S TREASURE has attracted attention and Landry Fields of the FBI, in the guise of the tax office, is investigating.

Jet Bosarge is the mermaid who appears to be a trust-fund girl, with a criminal connection. Bullion has been recovered from shipwrecks in recent years, its ownership hotly disputed. As far as Jet is concerned, once it's at the bottom of the sea it belongs to the merfolk. She donates the sale money to sea creature charities. Her past partner, Perry, has been jailed by Chilean authorities and recently released. He arrives back to find Jet, with her undoubted skills. But Jet isn't sure she wants to know him anymore. Did he ever love her, or was he just taking advantage of a good thing?

I like the detail about what is important to Jet. Her sister Shelly lives in town too, teaching swimming and aquatic therapy. They are well aware that most of the town's residents live just above poverty level by shrimping or fish processing, making oil-rig work inviting. Oil spills in the Gulf have driven off most other merfolks, so Jet swims with a captive dolphin. Dolly was injured in the wild and nursed back to health, but then the owner of the sealife park decided that she brought in money. Finding that Dolly is with calf, Jet is determined to set her free. Some humans are partly mer-blooded, and these people tend to work with marine life in some way, whether they know about their heritage or not. There must be local legends, though, as the town is called Bayou La Siryna.

I enjoyed this shapeshifter book with a difference, finding the background thoroughly developed and characters incredibly real. A Central American gangster involvement provides the tension and danger while tension of another sort fairly crackles between Jet and a red-blooded male. There's a beautiful undersea sequence with Jet using all her senses including sonar as she meets an octopus, lobsters and jellyfish. For those readers who love mermaid tales, there's a treat in store for you in Debbie Herbert's adult romance SIREN'S TREASURE.

Book Summary

Deep in the bayou, a strange and beautiful world of merfolk exists…

Mermaid Jet Borsage never fit in with her own kind. Her dark hair and eyes set her apart from the other merfolk. Which was why she fell for the wrong man, and why she is still paying the price. One that has made her unwilling to trust any man. Until she meets Landry Fields…

Agent Landry Fields is investigating Jet's former boyfriend, but he knows Jet is hiding something, as well. At first he believed the beauty was involved in her ex-boyfriend's dangerous undersea excavations. But when he realizes he is falling for a real-live mermaid, Landry's by-the-book beliefs are rocked. Now can he save Jet and her clan from modern-day pirates to claim a future with the feisty beauty?

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