River's End Author:Nora Roberts Olivia's parents were among Hollywood's golden couples...until the night a monster came and took her mother away forever. A monster with the face of her father...
Now, Noah Brady wants to reconstruct the night that has become an infamous part of Hollywood history-and heal the longing in Olivia's lonely heart.
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Her signature florid style again serving a suspenseful mystery combined with a fated romance, bestselling Roberts (Hot Ice) tells a Helter Skelter-type Hollywood horror story lurid with murder, drugs and insanity. One summer night in 1979, four-year-old Olivia Tanner finds her doped-up father, Sam, bloodied shears in hand, poised over the dead body of her movie-star mom. Haunted by the image of "the monster" pursuing her, Olivia is sent to live with her grandparents in the Pacific Northwest, where she is sheltered from her memories by towering Douglas firs. Two decades later, the specter of the "monster" returns. From prison, her father urges young investigative reporter Noah Brady?son of the police detective who discovered Olivia after the murder?to research the crime. Noah accepts this task eagerly, heedless of Olivia's rebuffs and undeterred by violence and danger, especially after Olivia begins to remember the crime. The denouement brings both of them into a bloody confrontation with the past. Roberts's careful research, particularly into the ecosystems of the forests of the Pacific Northwest, makes for vibrant background detail. Her artful manipulation of the plot, contrived so that amour and horror escalate in tandem, reaffirms her ability to deliver entertaining fiction. From Pulisher Weekly
At four years old, Olivia McBride witnessed her father standing over her mother's bloody body, holding a knife. Olivia ran and hid from him until a police detective found her in a closet. Olivia was sent to live with her grandparents at their home on the edge of Olympic National Park.
True crime writer Noah Brady wants to write the story about the murder of movie star Julie McBride. Noah grew up hearing about the murder. His father was the lead detective on the case. Julie's husband, actor Sam Tanner, was convicted of her murder and has spent twenty years in prison. When Noah contacts Olivia, she is upset. She wants nothing to do with the book and doesn't want to be reminded of her mother's murder. But Sam has been released from prison and wants his story old.
This is an older Nora Roberts book that I hadn't had a chance to read when it came out. The first 30% of the story was on the slow side, setting up the story and getting to know the characters. The pace picked up when Noah decides to write about the famous murder. The story was heavy on romance, but there was some suspense. We also got some in-depth description of Olympic National Park and the rain forest. My rating: 4 Stars.
Sam and Julie, a Hollywood couple. Their four-year-old daughter, Livvy, was in the house the night Julie was murdered. She tried to find her mother and finds her father bending over her mother's bloody body. She hides in a closet where a very nice policeman, Frank Brady, later found her. Although her mother's twin sister, Jamie, and her husband, David, wanted to have Olivia live with them, she went to live with her grandparents who run River's End, a lodge and campground on Washington state's Olympic Peninsula far from the media circus. Livvy lives in the safe environment her grandparents provided for her. Loving nature, Livvy goes to college majoring in resource science and returns to River's End to open a naturalist center that she dreamed about. Twenty years after Julie's murder, Sam Tanner's parole has continued to be denied thanks in large part to the testimony of Frank Brady and Julie's twin sister, Jamie. Stricken with a terminal cancer, Sam contacts best-selling true-crime author Noah Brady (Frank's son) to finally tell his side of the story. Noah has long been interested in the case; and, particularly in Livvy, who he has had contact with a couple of times in the past 20 years. Noah knows he will have to get all sides of the story, not just Sam's which will mean seeing Livvy again. When Noah sees Livvy, the attraction is still there but little does he know that in his quest to get her father's story, her life will be in danger for there is one person who knows the truth of what happened that night 20 years before. RIVER'S END is one of Nora Roberts best.... way to go Nora!!!
