The liar by Nora Roberts

Piatkus, 2015. ISBN 9780349403762
(Age: Adult) Romantic suspense. Shelby Foxworth's husband is dead. Left with a crippling debt she tracks down his safe deposit box which contained cash and multiple passports, proving that he was not the man he had shown to the world. Disenchanted, her memories of him tarnished, she decides to move with her small daughter back to the small Southern town where she was raised. Here she finds solace in tight and loving family relations and meets local contractor, Griff Lott. However danger threatens and murders are committed.
I am a fan of Nora Roberts and always pick up her books for a good escapist read. I enjoyed the character of Shelby, and the way that Roberts portrayed a wife who had been dominated by her husband but finally comes through with the help of her family and friends. The character of Griff, the new romantic interest was also a very likeable and supportive man. I did find the centre part of the novel which concentrated on how wonderful her family were and how they rallied around her rather repetitive. I would have liked more emphasis on the suspense and the romance and less accent on the family relations, but that is a personal preference.
Fans of Roberts will enjoy this one as a quick escapist read, but devotees of the romantic suspense genre may find that the plot and conclusion were ones that they had met before.
Pat Pledger