High Noon Showdown (High Noon - Nora Roberts)

Member Name: liss_e

Product:	High Noon - Nora Roberts
Date:	05/06/09 (31 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great characterisation, fairly good plot, easy to sit back and enjoy reading

Disadvantages: I think it definitely could've contained a bit more romance between the characters

The blurb as on Amazon.co.uk:

Police Lieutenant Phoebe Mac Namara found her calling at an early age when an unstable man broke into her family's home, trapping and terrorising them for hours. Now she's Savannah's top hostage negotiator, defusing powder-keg situations and has a talent for knowing when to give in - and when to jump in and take action. It's satisfying work - and sometimes those skills come in handy at home dealing with her precocious seven-year-old, Carly, and her agoraphobic mother, still traumatised by the break-in after all these years. It's exactly that heady combination of steely courage and sensitivity that first attracts Duncan Swift to Phoebe. After watching her talk one of his employees off of a roof ledge, he is committed to keeping this intriguing, take-charge woman in his life. She's used to working solo, but Phoebe's finding that no amount of negotiation can keep Duncan at arm's length. And when she's grabbed by a man who throws a hood over her head and brutally assaults her - in her own precinct house - Phoebe can't help but be deeply shaken. Then threatening messages show up on her doorstep, and she's not just alarmed but frustrated. How do you go face-to-face with an opponent who refuses to look you in the eye?




I've read loads of Nora Roberts books, as you can frequently pick them up cheap and secondhand, and although I usually like her characters the plots were starting to bore me a little so I hadn't read anything by her for quite some time when I got given this book.

Nora Roberts is a prolific writer, with what must be hundreds of books underneath her belt. She typically writes romances but has a series of futuristic crime novels written under the pen name J.D.Robb (a play on her sons' first names and surname apparently). I found this book blended together the two kinds of book, it features a Hostage Negotiator as the heroine and the plot contained a lot of detail around her job and situations that arose as a result from it.

I loved Phoebe, she's a hard working modern career woman, who has strong family loyalty which I really admire. Duncan has some great moments, and I'd love to know where on earth I could find such a perfect guy in real life (all her men are just about perfect though). The support characters are, as always with Roberts, great, they're funny and absolutely bring the scenes to life. My particular favourites being Dave and Ma Bee.

The bad guys are insane and you really worry alongside Phoebe as she fears for those she loves. I'd love to say I didn't see the main twist coming but I'm afraid I did despite it almost feeling like Roberts had changed her mind about the main plot halfway through the book. There's not actually that much romance in this novel, whereas in other books she's written romance features heavily this one is lighter and I confess I did miss that, but I enjoyed the plot and reading about Phoebe's work and how difficult it is.

I would read it again if I was bored, and I did enjoy the twists within the plot, but it's not about to be crowned one of my most favourite books but it has bought back memories of past novels by Roberts that I think I might just have to go back and re-read.

Summary: More than likely a re-read and a good all rounder.