The Search

March 22, 2010
The serviceable latest from Roberts centers on Fiona Bristow, a professional canine search-and-rescue trainer, who moved to Orcas Island in Puget Sound eight years earlier, just after barely escaping from a serial killer. The story opens with Simon Doyle, an artisan cabinetmaker who arrives on the island with a puppy in tow. It's the puppy that brings Fiona and Simon together, and the romance gets off to a rocky start; he's grumpy and plainspoken; she doesn't scare easily. Then a serial killer begins operating within striking distance, and all Fiona's hard-won peace and equanimity begins to wobble: the man who almost killed her is in prison, but he's got a disciple on the outside. The serial killer plot is very familiar and without much to distinguish it, but the romance is finely done, with Roberts's trademark banter lighting up the page. Fiona and Simon are the main attraction, but the setting and the supporting characters—with paws and without—provide a vivid backdrop.

April 15, 2010
A dog trainer and a wood craftsman dance around love and danger in the Pacific Northwest.

Fiona Bristow is the only victim who got away from serial killer George Perry. Now a copycat, inspired and perhaps guided by the jailed Perry, is on her trail. After Perry murdered her fianc, Fiona rebuilt her life as a dog trainer and search-and-rescue expert on lovely Orcas Island. She's recently met talented woodworker Simon Doyle and his misbehaving puppy Jaws, and her dormant love life is about to revive as she and the reluctant Simon slowly build a complicated relationship. Though she's done her best to overcome her fears and make herself whole again, this new series of killings, with herself as the ultimate target, can't help but strain her nerves. As the police and FBI track the killer, a persistent reporter makes Fiona's life more difficult by printing information about her life and location. Through it all, Fiona keeps working. As she continues to go on rescue missions with a team that may soon include Simon and Jaws, her friends help to keep her balanced. But ultimately it will be the trust she has built up with Simon and the talents of her dogs that will change her life forever.

A little slower-paced than the typical Roberts romantic mystery (Black Hills, 2009, etc.) but every bit as steamy. It may well add dog lovers to her legion of fans.

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

April 1, 2010
Fiona Bristow knew dogs could be successfully trained, but she wasnt as sure about men. Case in point: Simon Doyle, Fionas latest client. Simon had come to Fiona hoping she could do something about his out-of-control puppy, Jaws. It takes a bit of work, but Fiona finally gets Simon to see the wisdom behind her dog-training methods. If only she could train Simon to stay out of her personal life. Before Fiona can say, Stay and Heel, she finds herself involved in a serious relationship for the first time since her fianc's death nearly a decade ago. Just when she begins to think she may have found the one man she might love as much as her dogs, a copy-cat serial killer starts targeting women in the Pacific Northwest. What is even worse is that the killers modus operandi is the same as the Red Scarf Killer, who, nearly a decade earlier, murdered 12 women before Fiona, his intended thirteenth victim, escaped, sending him to jail. Roberts deftly packs the plot of her latest supremely satisfying novel with plenty of sexy romance, high-stakes suspense, clever dialogue, and fascinating details about search-and-rescue dogs.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)