Northern Lights Nora Roberts Piatkus £10.99 Rel: Sep 2004 Reviewed by Ayo Onatade

Northern Lights by best-selling author Nora Roberts is set in an appropriately named town called Lunacy, Alaska. Nate Burke has come there for some solace; once a city cop he is consumed by grief at his inability to do anything about the death of his former partner. He hopes that by becoming the Chief of Police in this isolated town that he will be able to redeem himself. Soon slowly but surely he finds himself becoming involved in the activities of this sleepy town. His sorrow gradually begins to heal as he becomes involved with independent and spirited bush pilot Meg Galloway. However he is soon jolted out of his complacency when a body is found in a cave. The body is that of Meg’s father who mysteriously disappeared. With another murder and acts of vandalism taking place Burke realises that Lunacy has hidden depths and is not the sombre quiet town he first thought it was. There is somebody still living in the town that certainly does not want Galloway’s murder resolved. Interspersed with journal entries from Galloway’s late father tantalising hints are dropped as to who the murderer is but the reader is left to draw their own conclusions.

Northern Lights is an interesting read. Surprisingly for a Nora Roberts novel it is not too heavy on the romance issue. The murder and the investigation are efficiently and deftly dealt with and one gets the feeling that Roberts will no doubt be writing more of these types of books. A satisfying and amusing read. Northern Lights is for those who don’t often read crime novels. Not too taxing, more like an easygoing beach read. It certainly won’t give you nightmares.