Review of Black Hills by Nora Roberts

From New Jersey Star-Ledger --

Books: Five thrillers from women authors, including Nora Roberts aka J.D. Robb --

By Kathleen Daley --
January 16, 2010 --

Black Hills
Nora Roberts
G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 480 pp., $26.95

Nora Roberts, popular fiction’s Joyce Carol Oates, claims she spends eight hours every day — including vacations — writing. As the author of 170 novels, she must. And by now, she knows how to tell a story.

This one is set in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The two main characters are Cooper Sullivan and Lil Chance, who met as youngsters when Coop came to South Dakota to visit his grandparents, dear friends of Lil’s parents.

Their romance blooms and dies over the years until Coop, who spent time in New York City as a cop and private investigator, returns for good to his grandparents’ farm. In the interim, Lil opened a refuge for wild animals, and therein lies the makings of the suspense. A serial killer of Native American heritage doesn’t like what Lil is doing with the sacred ground of his ancestors.

Roberts strings the reader along as Coop tries to rekindle the romance. Meanwhile, the killer watches from the hills.