Eight minutes on a Friday night in July was all it took
to change the lives of a whole community. No one expected
the three teenagers to open fire in the local mall, and
certainly not in the movie theater. Now, the lives of the
survivors are permanently altered as each has to learn to
adjust to life after the horrible massacre. For one, law
enforcement seems the most likely course while another
turns to her art for solace. Unfortunately, there's a
darker mind out there lurking, one who wants to inflict
even further pain upon the survivors. Will this person's
evil plan come to full fruition?
Nora Roberts tackles an all too realistic scenario in
SHELTER IN PLACE. The first section of the story, aptly
titled Innocence Lost, takes readers into the horrors of
a mass shooting as Nora Roberts rips our hearts out. We
see families torn apart and devastated in one single
instance, all with the pull of a trigger by one of three
teenagers hellbent on wreaking chaos. I won't lie- this
chapter may have been one of the toughest reads I've ever
had as my heart ached, seeing families and lives
destroyed while the murderers gleefully continue pulling
the trigger. Nora Roberts takes a topic straight from the
headlines and puts a human face to the destruction, and
the impact is beyond powerful.
However, one of the beautiful things about any Nora
Roberts' story is how she finds the kernels of hope even
within the darkest places and never is this more evident
than in SHELTER IN PLACE. I love that we delve into the
healing power of art as we see one survivor navigate her
way through her grief and pain. She is balanced well by
another survivor, who seeks solace in the steady role of
law enforcement where his logical mind flourishes. The
chemistry between them is beautiful to behold, as they
enhance each other in their growing strengths. I won't
spoil anything by revealing their names as part of the
tenseness of the opening section of SHELTER IN PLACE is
not knowing who lives and who dies.
SHELTER IN PLACE is one of those stories that haunts you
well past the last page. The relevancy of the subject
matter makes it all the more stunning, as Nora Roberts
humanizes an all too realistic scenario. SHELTER IN PLACE
is the kind of book you savor slowly, as the cascading
emotions are so intensely powerful. If you read just one
book this year, make it SHELTER IN PLACE. You won't
regret it.
The #1 New York Times bestselling author presents
a stunning new novel about an incomprehensible act of
violence—and the heroic acts, large and small, that follow
in its wake.
It was a typical evening at a mall outside Portland, Maine.
Three teenage friends waited for the movie to start. A boy
flirted with the girl selling sunglasses. Mothers and
children shopped together, and the manager at the video-game
store tended to customers. Then the shooters arrived.
The chaos and carnage lasted only eight minutes before the
killers were taken down. But for those who lived through it,
the effects would last forever. In the years that followed,
one would dedicate himself to a law enforcement career.
Another would close herself off, trying to bury the memory
of huddling in a ladies’ room, helplessly clutching her cell
phone—until she finally found a way to pour the emotions of
that night into her art.
But one person wasn’t
satisfied with the shockingly high death toll at the
DownEast Mall. And as the survivors slowly heal, find
shelter, and rebuild, they will discover that another
conspirator is lying in wait—and this time, there might be
nowhere safe to hide.