Shelter In Place | Nora Roberts

By Karen Byrom

REVIEWED BY MAGGIE SWINBURNE

Sometimes there is nowhere safe left to hide…

There must be many novels written with a murderous mall, killing spree in mind, but when this gripping topic is combined with Nora Roberts’ wonderful energy for romance and love, a thrilling and unputdownable story is the result.

Shelter in Place tells the story of what happens next after such an atrocity, and there are as many stories as there are survivors, all held together by the evil intentions of the warped and twisted mind behind the killings.

Simone and Reed are not alone in surviving the massacre, but gradually they realise that the killing hasn’t stopped, and their names are top of someone’s list.

As this is a Nora Roberts story, it is populated by a wonderful cast of supporting actors, with art, music, drama, good works and a fabulous island location at its centre. The shopping list of killings are aberrant full stops in a sweeping, arching drama of beautiful people (artists of course), noble intentions, delightful settings (very high end if you want to go on holiday there), plus random moments of intense passion…!

Lives must be rebuilt…

Families, torn apart by the massacre, must gradually rebuild, and young lives, damaged by the experience, must gradually be put back together by a process of growing up, finding love and discovering that you are an internationally acclaimed sculptor.

And then there is the rescue dog… every character must have its own back story and moment of glory.

Nora Roberts truly deserves her crown as queen of romance (with 500 million of her books on sale in the world) because she puts her heart and soul into every word, every character, every romantic moment, resulting in this reader having to go for a lie-down afterwards!