Named of the Dragon by Susanna Kearsley

Set in Wales, Named of the Dragon is probably Kearsley's most suspenseful novel to date.

Literary agent Lyn Ravenshaw agrees to spend the Christmas holiday with her client Bridget, a children's book author. Bridget has invited Lyn to Wales, where she is spending Christmas with James Swift, an author represented by another agent. Bridget incites Lyn to accompany her by dropping a few hints that Swift is not happy with his current agent and Lyn jumps at the chance.

In Wales, Lyn meets their neighbor, a young widow named Elen who has a young son. Between Lyn having strange dreams of a mysterious woman telling her to protect her son, to Elen telling her that she, Lyn, is her son's protector, Lyn feels that there is something odd about. Lyn, who is mourning the loss of her own baby, who died a few years ago, gets upset around babies and small children, constantly haunted by thoughts of her own.

Also while there, Lyn comes across Gareth Morgan, a reclusive playwright who thinks that Lyn is down there to try to snag him as a client. So, there's instant tension and the two don't get along so well.

Things get weird when Elen keeps mentioning that a dragon from the nearby tower is trying to steal her child. Everyone thinks Elen is off her rocker, but Lyn starts wondering if there isn't some truth to it. Something strange is definitely going on. And as time goes on, Lyn also starts to figure out what her dreams with the mysterious woman mean.

Named of the Dragon definitely has my favorite hero. Well, I guess he's sort of an anti-hero, I'm not sure. He's definitely the brooding type, sort of like Heathcliff, but not completely mental.

And the suspense was spot-on combined with a unique setting. A great suspense novel.