Photographer Jo Ellen Hathaway thought she'd escaped the house called Sanctuary long ago. She'd spent her loneliest years there, after the sudden, unexplained disappearance of her mother. But now someone is sending her pictures; strange, candid close-ups, culminating in the most shocking portrait of all - a photo of her mother, naked, beautiful and dead. Jo decides she must return to face her bitterly estranged family: her father, who has never recovered from the loss of his wife, and her brother and sister. But while her presence stirs up old resentments, Jo finds solace with architect Nathan Delaney - who is also facing his own demons. But while Jo and Nathan look for a way to lay the past to rest, a more sinister presence is watching the Hathaway family with interest. It seems Sanctuary may be the most dangerous place of all...

Author Biography

Nora Roberts is the author of more than one hundred New York Times bestsellers, with more than 300 million copies of her books in print. Under the pen name J. D. Robb, she is author of the bestselling futuristic suspense series. Visit her website at www.noraroberts.com.

Critical Reviews:

Kirkus Reviews
Roberts is the perfect perpetual-romance machine. She churns out an almost inhuman number each year; she meets an annual March deadline for her hardcovers (this one even has the same number of pages as last year's bestselling Montana Sky). And each is lively, sexy, and well researched. Her latest concerns three siblings (the Hathaways) who find lovers and strained relationships while a homicidal madman is threatening their safety. The three live in a beautiful white gothic on the Georgia Sea Island of Lost Desire, which they've turned into an inn. Brian, the eldest--tall, cute, and morose--runs the establishment and is chef of its five-star kitchen. (His father Sam can't understand how a man can ``enjoy creating a perfect meringue and still prefer women for sex.'') Brian fights halfheartedly against the amorous advances of Kirby, the pretty Yankee doctor who runs the island's clinic; the two eventually end up locked in an embrace against her refrigerator door. Meanwhile, the youngest sib, Alexa Hathaway--sexy Lexy, the island princess with the gypsy hair--has failed at acting in New York and come home to waitress and throw a few tantrums. She fights halfheartedly against the honorable intentions of childhood buddy Giff Verdon, who's good with his hands and doesn't let her get away with much. Finally, there is Jo Ellen, a world-famous photographer who's returned to Desire after a nervous breakdown and is fighting a losing battle against empathic architect Nathan Delaney. Twenty years earlier, the Hathaways' mother, Annabelle, had disappeared, abandoning her family--or so it seemed. Now someone is stalking the family, having even sent Jo Ellen a picture of her mother, dead and naked. As usual, the romance is better than the weird violence. There's not much suspense here, but it's good to see that heroines are becoming gutsier and heroes better in the kitchen.