Black Hills

Reader's Dialogue: http://readersdialogue.blogspot.com

I love when stories go deeper and farther than two adults who met. When childhood is a factor, when there is already a relationship, tangled and mangled as it is, it adds so much more to the story of their love. Nora manages to get inside the heads of every single one of her characters. In all her books, it's obvious that she can get inside the heads of both men and women, and in her romantic suspense novels, including the In Death series, she gets inside the killers' heads. But in stories like this, you can see her skill in getting inside the heads of little kids and teenagers and presenting them realistically, down to the tone of voice and turn of phrase they would use.

I loved both Lil and Coop. Coop is so exasperating, but he's a great guy, and he can't be blamed for wanting the best for Lil, even if he does go about achieving that in a heartbreaking way. And Lil is so dedicated, so fierce, but so vulnerable. I love that mix because it makes her so much realer. As always, the minor characters are also real, likable characters - and I love the subplot of Tansy and Farley's romance - it's so sweet!

As I've gotten accustomed to at this point, Nora Roberts turns in a decently entertaining and suspenseful little story with Black Hills, one of her most recent works. There's nothing here that's particularly unusual compared to all of her other works; she certainly utilizes a lot of her familiar tropes here, such as the hero being a former cop, and focusing less on surprising you with the identity of the killer and more upon the suspense involved with setting up where and how he will strike next and how the good guys will finally track him down.

This time around, what makes the story work for me is the fact that she takes the time to show us the childhoods of Lil and Cooper, following them from when they first met as youngsters, up through when they first consummate their blossoming affections as young adults, and on up through to the current day--when Lil has established a wildlife refuge and Coop is coming back to the Black Hills to look after his aging grandparents and to put his past as a cop behind him. There's nice character development between him and Lil through the whole book, as the two of them strive to deal with the emotional weight of their past and the simple fact that they're still in love with each other.

Since this is of course a Nora Roberts novel, there's a killer on the loose to spice things up. And after all the romantic suspense novels of hers I've read, she's pretty much got the formula down. Again, nothing terribly unusual in this book's particular psychopath du jour, how he perceives our heroine, and what ultimately happens to bring about his downfall... but it's all competently executed and an engaging read. Three stars.