Fiona Bristow foiled an attack against her by a serial killer. Years later, a seeming copycat is intent on finishing the job her original assailant couldn't. The Search is the story of Fiona and the romance she develops with her new boyfriend Simon while the copycat closes in. She's a strong and scrappy woman; Simon is a strong and superficially insensitive man who simultaneously makes her heart sing, curls her toes, and stands side-by-side with her to face down the threat. 
 The Search is well-written, suspenseful, the characters are engaging, and it's all designed for a female audience. I read it because it appeared on lists of books involving military or search-and-rescue dogs. Dog training is a consistent element or theme throughout the book. Fiona trains dogs for a living and does search-and-rescue work as a volunteer. Her job and the volunteer work are successfully woven into the storyline. However, the dog training seems to be a one-dimensional tool that Roberts uses to reveal Fiona's character and to give Fiona insights into her would-be killer. The dogs get assigned names and a couple personality traits, and the reader learns a bit about search-and-rescue operations, but it's a little thin. The dogs don't get quite as much attention or reward in the end as I would think they deserve. 
 That being said, Nora Roberts intended to write a woman-in-distress romance and not a search-and-rescue book, so it's not her fault I picked up a copy to read. I cannot fault Roberts because some people may have exaggerated the extent to which this novel focused on search-and-rescue dogs. Roberts did a great job and wrote a satisfying conclusion, so I give it four stars, but this book really wasn't for me.