Review - The Witness by Nora Roberts

Elizabeth Fitch is tired of living her life by her mother’s strict rules. So the minute her mother leaves for a medical conference, Elizabeth is out the door and headed to the mall. One new wardrobe, one new BFF, and two new fake IDs later, Liz finds herself at Chicago’s hottest nightclub. But before the night is over, Liz will be a witness to murder, when Alex Gurevich, the nightclub owner, is eliminated by two of his business associates. Twelve years later, Liz, now living as Abigail Lowery, has built a new life for herself as a freelance computer-security programmer in Bickford, Arkansas. Abigail’s first and only priority is staying one step ahead of the Russian Mob, who has never stopped trying to get rid of the one living witness to Gurevich’s murder. The only problem is that Bickford’s new chief of police, Brooks Gleason, simply refuses to let her live in peace, and nothing Abigail says or does seems to convince him that she doesn’t need his help (Amazon).

This is Nora at the top of her game.  In fact I think it is the first novel since Three Fates  that I really enjoyed and want to read again.  My attention was riveted from the first sentence to the last page.  The whole book could have focused on Elizabeth/Abigail in the first year or two after the murder and I still would have read it.  I found Abigail's character to be believable in light of how she was raised, what happened to her and how she had to live.  Although at times her mannerisms and social skills made me think she was a little Autistic.  Not sure if she was, or if Roberts portrayed her that way to show how stunted her upbringing was and the lack of social connections she had before meeting Brooks.  Brooks seems to be the typical Beta male lead, a take charge type of guy that does so while considering the feelings of others.  I did find him to be pushy and overbearing at the beginning with Abigail.  But I let that go, because she was so reclusive, if brooks wasn't pushy, there would have been no love story.

There were no unexpected twits or turns in this novel, but I enjoyed it all.