In Carolina Moon, the author revisits the rural south and introduces us to Progress, South Carolina. Eighteen years earlier, Hope Lavelle, the eight-year-old daughter of the town’s first family, had been murdered. Hope had snuck out of her house to meet her best friend Tory Bodeen at their secret place. But Tory had been unable to come and instead, Hope had met her death. Tory, possessed of psychic abilities, had experienced her friend’s death and taken her grieving father and brother to her body. Shortly thereafter, the Bodeens had left Progress. Now, Tory is returning, hoping to put to rest Hope’s spirit.

Tory had failed to meet her friend because she had been brutally beaten by her father, one of many beatings that Hannibal Bodeen gave his daughter. She had fled her parents’ home at eighteen and after an unhappy experience in New York, had returned to the south. Scrimping and saving had given her the money to open her own boutique in Progress. She needs to return for her own peace of mind.

One of the first people she meets is Cade Lavelle, Hope’s older brother. There is an immediate attraction between the two, but Tory is wary of relationships. She has been badly hurt. Cade does not rush the relationship; he is a patient man who knows what he wants and he wants Tory.

Tory’s return to Progress stirs up old memories and old fears, because, to quote the dust jacket, “Hope’s murderer is nearby.”

This very brief description of the plot of Carolina Moon does not begin to capture the richness of the book. What Nora Roberts does so incredibly well is to create character after character, all of whom she brings to life with incredible skill. There is Hope’s twin sister Faith, who has never truly recovered from her sister’s death or from her parents’ response to the tragedy. There is Cade’s best friend, Wade, who has loved Faith for years, but watched her flit from man to man is search of something missing from her life. There is Cade’s other good friend, the mayor, Dwight, and his flighty, gabby, gossipy wife. There is Cade’s cold and disapproving mother. There are Tory’s parents and grandmother and uncle and aunt and....

Well, I could go on and on, but the fact is that Roberts’ brings all of these people to life on the pages of her book, so that we come to know and understand them.

Of course, the characters we come to know best are Tory and Cade. Tory is a woman who has succeeded in rising above her brutal childhood and has learned to live with her unwanted gift. But she is not some unbelievable superwoman. She is a woman with perfectly comprehensible fears and doubts, a woman of strength and a woman with weaknesses. She is, like all of Roberts’ creations, a fully realized person. This is very much Tory’s book.

Which brings me to the one slightly unsatisfying aspect of Carolina Moon -- the hero. Don’t get me wrong. I’d be absolutely delighted if my daughter brought Cade Lavelle home. He’s a simply wonderful guy. He’s rich; he’s handsome. He’s a good brother, a dutiful son, a loyal friend, an upright citizen, and a great lover. What’s more, he practices environmentally friendly agricultural techniques on his family’s cotton plantation. I guess if I were to compare him to other Roberts’ heroes, he would come closest to one of my very favorites, Tucker Longstreet, of Roberts’ other southern set romantic suspense novel, Carnal Innocence. But he simply isn’t as interesting a character as Tucker or most of Roberts’ other heroes. Which is not to say that I don’t understand why Tory falls in love with him; he’s perfect for her. He just doesn’t have that special something that I expect of Roberts’ heroes.

One other indication of Roberts’ preeminent position in the world of romantic suspense is her ability to keep the reader guessing. In short, she manages to create the requisite atmosphere of impending danger and keep us wondering about who the villain is. Yet when we find out, we say, “Well, yes. that makes sense.”

Roberts has another winner with Carolina Moon. But why should this surprise anyone? She is purely and simply the best when it comes to writing contemporary romances today and probably ever. Nobody does it better.

--Jean Mason