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Except for the Ireland trilogies, this is my favorite Nora Robert's book. I think it is such a page turner. I decided that I wanted to find it in hard cover to keep.

Nora Roberts often shows signs of being a first-rate novelist, and then can't quite clinch it. This book is a perfect example of what I mean. The book starts very well, with the murder of a major movie star. Her drug addict husband is arrested, tried, and sent to prison. So far so good.

The story then focuses on the victim's four-year old daughter who may have or may not have actually witnessed the crime. She grows up, becomes a naturalist in the state of Washington and is approached by a writer who is doing a book about the sensational murder.

The book starts to go wrong, for me, at least, with the love affair between the writer and the girl. I know that some readers must crave this sort of thing, but somehow it just doesn't fit with the mystery/thriller genre. It distracts from our curiosity about what really happened that fateful night and how it will all turn out.

Still, I could have lived with the sex scenes, reruns in effect from Ms. Roberts' other books--lots of tasting and fisting without saying exactly where. The scenes are gauzy without the specificity of the X-rated movie. They remind me of those movies that had the camera point suddently up through the trees or at a waterfall at the crucial moment. If you're going to do a sex scene, then do it right. Be specific. Or don't bother with it.

Again still, it's the ending for this book that really bothered me. I'd have given this at least four stars except for the denouement. The problem is that it is too facile, too articulate. Obviously I can't go into the details about that without giving away the ending. Suffice it to say that in real life, perps don't take the time to explain, in detail, exactly what they did and why--in complete sentences and paragraphs. Only in bad movies and bad books do they do that. Unfortunately the reasons in this case don't make sense. But judge for yourself.

Despite what I consider flaws, the characters are interesting and well drawn. That's a strength of the novelist. As always, Roberts has the marvelous talent to take the reader to a place, in this case the rain forest of the west slope of the Washington range of mountains. Those are the attributes, the talent, that keeps me reading Roberts and hoping that she'll write better, more realistic last chapters. And maybe find a new vocabulary for the obligatory bedroom antics, if include them she must.

Oh, and I wish publishers would put a cast of characters at the front of complicated novels. I got a bit confused as to who was who in the first third of the novel. In fact, it would be a good idea to have a brief description of the characters in every novel.

When tragedy befalls 4-year-old Livvy, her life is forever changed when her father is convicted of murdering her mother. Since they were a popular Hollywood couple, everyone is curious about her, and the press won't leave her alone. To protect her, Olivia goes to live with her grandparents who raise her as their own. They live in the quiet Pacific Northwest, running a lodge providing vacationers the chance to be up close and personal with nature. Livvy loves nature, and majors in the field hoping to open a center at the lodge. As she settles into her peaceful life at the lodge, her past comes crashing into her present when her father decides to set the record straight. He has contacted writer Noah Brady to tell his story. As Noah and Livvy rekindle their childhood friendship and explore the future, they soon discover they have to resolve the past or there may be no future.

This is a suspenseful read with well-written characters interwoven into a very sad tale. Again, NR uses her descriptive talents letting the reader feel a part of the landscape.

Nora Roberts' RIVER'S END receives veteran freelance voiceover talent Sandra Burr's moving and passionate voice: perfect for the high drama contained in this story of a young woman who struggles to recall events on the night her mother was murdered. The son of the police officer who found the then-four-year-old hiding in a bedroom closet strives to help her - and indeed may end her loneliness as romance evolves.