Mountains of Dawn

Isolation, and the struggle one has sometimes to face to be part of the living—both physically and metaphorically—is Mountains of Dawn's subdued theme. The case is made by Tanya Caldwell, an orphan who, from the age of six to the age of eighteen, has been shipped like a parcel from one foster home to another. The lack of roots and the feeling of abandon sit deeply in Tanya's heart. When her best friend is killed in a car explosion that she suspects was meant for her, Tanya's life takes a dangerous turn. She needs to trust strangers to protect herself, and some of these, alerted and made greedy by her sudden and unexpected inheritance, become part of a conspiracy—the very same conspiracy that, fifteen years before, wiped out her entire family. On the advice of Malcolm Clark, the head of the prestigious agency Invicta, Tanya hires an ex-police-officer, Charles Aldrin, as bodyguard. When Charles is injured in a suspicious accident, Tanya panics.
To escape her pursuers she leaves her hometown of Vermeil, Ontario, and finds refuge in an old mansion on the Riviera, where her talent as a painter finds endless inspiration. Here she meets Kevin Matwin, a publisher of arts books, and an Italian count, Luigi Amedeo di Monteturro, whose dignified manners and daredevil enterprises hide more than one secret.
Love sparkles between Tanya and Kevin, and in the months to follow Tanya will be the only person who believes Kevin is worthy of trust.
Tanya, however, is a resourceful young woman—lucky too. Even in the mist of perilous traveling, fire and murder attempts, she finds time to poke into her parents' past—and she finds a half-brother ready to fend for her.
As accidents very similar to Tanya's begin occurring to Brian, Malcolm Clark's brother, Malcolm takes a close look at the denominator Tanya and Brian have in common: The Peoples' Helping Hand—the institution that has been handling both Tanya's and Brian's financial investments. While Malcolm is busy analyzing the wrong doing surfacing at the bank, Tanya is tricked into a flight to Brazil, where her pursuers have her at their mercy—and that will not be the last time that Tanya's life is in danger.