Northern Lights

[scottishlass]

Finished Nora Roberts' newest book Northern Lights today.
562 pgs
G.P.Putnam & Son Ltd. and Piatkus Paperback.

Ignatious *Nate* Burke, a disillusioned and deeply troubled police officer of Baltimore PD takes the job of Sherrif in Lunacy, Alaska. His married partner died on him and he blames himself for his partner's death. He is a cheechako, an outsider, but in his depression he turns to the one thing that he knows about: being a cop. Ppl are still suspicious of him but if he wants it or not, he becomes part of the Lunatics and when 3 missing school boys are picked up in an icy cave with a dead body on their hands, Nate Burke gets wrenched out of his depression and he finds out the falling in love is as deadly as falling down a ravine. People get killed and the question of who climbed up with the victim all these years ago becomes the revolving focus of the book.

Okay so Nora has reduced writing her hot sex scenes, but the overall story was very good. I liked the setting in Alaska and her descriptions of the winter months where there is not much day light as well as the special sturdy stock of ppl living there was very interesting and riveting.
The characters, esp. of Nate Burke and Meg Galloway, as well as the main citizens of Lunacy, were very well drawn and you could just see them in your mind's eye. At several instances I was a bit reminded of Northern Exposure, but in a good way.
I couldn't put the book down and had to read it in two days. It is a long book, 562 pages in a big hard cover format but every hugs page was worth it, no skipping, no skimming.
I can only recommend this book, it is not so much a romance novel but very much a crime novel, a very concise book about how to find out who went up the mountains with the ice man sixteen years ago.