“Identity” is the title of Nora Roberts’ latest novel, and the title signifies not just an identity stolen: when Morgan Albright’s credit cards and banking information are stolen after her roommate was murdered, she feels adrift. Her rock-solid plan for the future has been destroyed, and she needs to find out how she can regain her momentum and control of her life.
When we first meet Morgan, she seems to have her life together. She owns a house, she works two jobs to save money to buy her own business, and she has planned her future carefully. The pieces seem to be falling in place. But when a handsome stranger comes into the bar she works at one night, the result is the destruction of life as she knows it. It’s not just that everything financial has been stolen from her; worse is that she must now go forward knowing that the sociopath who killed her roommate is still trying to kill her.
Morgan goes home to Vermont, to stay with her mother and her grandmother in their family home in the town where their family goes back generations. Morgan had never lived there before because her father was in the military and they often moved. Now, perhaps, she will be able to put down the roots that she has craved after a life of moving too often to make good friends, unable to feel like a town is home.
It’s Nora Roberts, so the romance, when it comes, is beautifully done. Morgan is no delicate flower, and she wants to live life on her own terms. Miles Jameson admires those independent qualities. Morgan begins to come into her own, creating a backyard haven for her family, succeeding in her job, and feeling a part of the community. She takes self-defense classes and gets in physical shape. She is careful while still living her life as fully as possible. And the FBI agents who are trying to catch the serial killer keep her (and us) updated about what they find. Roberts also provides us with insight into what the killer is doing, whom he is killing, and his mental state of mind, through narratives about him interspersed in the story that is mostly about Morgan.
The ending comes with no twists, but with the spirit we’ve come to expect from Morgan, who is everything we really want in a hero—strong, determined, and clever. The writing is third person omniscient so we know what Morgan and Miles, her love interest, are thinking. We are also privy to what the killer is thinking as he continues his reign of violence. This also brings us close to Morgan, and we feel connected to her as we watch this all unfold to its dramatic conclusion.
This review was first posted on Bookreporter.com.