Under currents by Nora Roberts
Piatkus, 2019. ISBN: 9780349421926.
(Age: Adult) Themes: Domestic violence, Family dynamics, Stalking, Resilience. Another classic book by Nora Roberts, showcasing the importance of family and supportive friends, delves into the horrors of domestic violence. Zane Bigelow and his sister Britt live in a beautiful house with their picture perfect parents, a successful surgeon and community minded wife. But behind closed doors, things are different, and everything comes to a head one momentous night.
Told from the point of view of Zane, the reader is taken into the nightmare that if his life as a teenager, and then his life when he finally comes back to his hometown, as a successful lawyer. He meets Darby, a landscape architect, who also has secrets in her past and a loving relationship evolves. Roberts is very skilful at writing about relationships and family life and her characters come to life on the page. Darby is a wonderful survivor, full of life and determined to make her business grow. Zane's aunt is helpful and kind and her detective husband a wonderful role model.
The scenes of domestic violence are quite graphic and Roberts describes not only family violence but two separate incidents of husbands abusing their wives. She shows how difficult it can be to leave an abusive relationship and how important it is to have family and community support. These themes overshadow the suspense of who is stalking Zane and Darby and seasoned readers will have no trouble working out who is doing it.
Roberts always delivers a story that keeps the reader engrossed right to the end and this is no exception.
Pat Pledger