Northern Lights

<p>Lunacy was Nate Burke&rsquo;s last chance. As a Baltimore cop, he&rsquo;d watched his partner die on the street and the guilt still haunts him. With nowhere else to go, he accepts the job as Chief of Police in this tiny, remote Alaskan town. Aside from sorting out a run-in between a couple of motor vehicles and a moose, he finds his first few weeks on the job are relatively quiet. But just as he wonders whether this has been all a big mistake, an unexpected kiss on New Year&rsquo;s Eve under the brilliant Northern Lights of the Alaska sky lifts his spirit and convinces him to stay just a little longer.<p>Meg Galloway, born and raised in Lunacy, is used to being alone. She was a young girl when her father disappeared, and she has learned to be independent, flying her small plane, living on the outskirts of town with just her huskies for company. After her New Year&rsquo;s kiss with the Chief of Police, she allows herself to give in to passion while remaining determined to keep things as simple as possible. But there&rsquo;s something about Nate&rsquo;s sad eyes that gets under her skin and warms her frozen heart.<p>And now, things in Lunacy are heating up. Years ago, on one of the majestic mountains shadowing the town, a crime occurred that is unsolved to this day and Nate suspects that a killer still walks the snowy streets. His investigation will unearth the secrets and suspicions that lurk beneath the placid surface, as well as bring out the big-city survival instincts that made him a cop in the first place. And his discovery will threaten the new life and the new love that he has finally found for himself.<br></p><h3>Romantic Mystery - Patricia (Trisha) Moore</h3><p>Northern Lights is yet another feather in the cap of Nora Roberts. Ms. Roberts leads us. by means of her main character, Ignatious (Nate) Burke, through the dark twists of fate that have landed Burke in the middle of an Alaskan winter to take on the job of Chief of Police for aptly named Lunacy, Alaska.. To do his job well, Burke must overcome his debilitating depression, the result of a shoot-out during a police action in his old home town of Baltimore, which cost him his partner and months of rehabilitation from his own wounds. <p> She has once again assembled a cast of characters that runs the gamut from a man of God to a godless individual, one of whom is guilty of murder, but hiding behind the façade of anyone's next-door-neighbor. Of course, we have the a romantic pairing of Nate with Meg, a free-spirited girl of the north, who takes it upon herself to help Nate find his way back, while enjoying the fruits of her labor, so to speak. The love scenes are tastefully, albeit erotically, done, which puts this story in the mature audience category. <p> The Alaskan scenery and the incredible aurora borealis are meticulously described by Ms. Roberts, which leaves you as breathless as Nate must have been experiencing it in person. <p> I dare you to unequivocally decide who the killer is before the end of the book. Now, no peeking at the end first.</p>