Book Review
Shelter in Place
by Nora Roberts
St. Martin’s Press © 2018
Summary:
In 2005 on a beautiful summer evening, three teen-aged boys opened fire in a busy mall full of shoppers, movie goers and restaurant patrons. Over just 8 minutes, a shocking number of lives would be taken, countless families would be devastated and heroes would be born.
Simone Knox had left the movie theater to run to the ladies’ room when she heard the gunshots, she locked herself in a stall in the bathroom and called 911. Unfortunately, her two best friends were still in the theater when the gunman opened fire. One friend was fatally shot, the other made it to the ICU because Simone’s call for help came so quickly. Still, in her mind, heroism is not hiding in a bathroom to call for help. The guilt she carries for not being there with her friends is a burden she will have to work through to find real peace and happiness.
Officer Essie McVee was literally in the parking lot of the mall finishing an on-site report of an OUI fender bender when the call came. She and her partner rushed into the movie theater and confronted one of the shooters. She then worked with the victims in the aftermath, trying to help calm the situation and find answers for families separated during the confusion. That’s when she met Reed Quartermaine.
Reed Quartermaine has a crush on the girl working at the sunglass kiosk. He just secured a double date with her and his friend Chaz, the on-duty manager of the video-game store. When he heard the shots, he saw a young boy screaming in the middle of the panicked crowd, running for safety. He scoops up the young boy and hides him under the counter of the kiosk while he dials 911. His actions most likely saved that little boy’s life. Officer McVee helps Reed reunite that young boy with his frantic father as they take his mother to the hospital for surgery.
The bond formed between Officer McVee and Reed Quartermaine that day will change the course of Reed’s life as he decides to answer the call to law enforcement.
One survivor was not satisfied. The death toll was not high enough that summer evening; the plan was not executed flawlessly. But plans can be changed. Even years later, survivors’ lives can be taken to rectify past mistakes.
My Thoughts:
I read Nora Roberts incessantly when I was in school, but I used to read her romance novels. This was the first mystery/suspense of hers that I’d picked up. Book review spoiler alert: I loved it.
I actually started this book just before bed, intending to read a few pages and nod off to sleep. From the first three pages, I could not put it down. The tension and heartbreak written during the 8-minute mall shooting is riveting.
Multiple characters immediately are developed, telling the story from the perspective of: the first 911 caller who is hiding in the bathroom at the movie theater, the young manager of a video-game store herding customers to safety in the back room, a guy hiding in a kiosk, sheltering a little boy crying out for his lost mother, a waitress at the Mexican restaurant, the first responding police officer who came face-to-face with the movie theater shooter.
These are the characters whose lives readers will carry through the next decade; we get to see their struggle as they try to move past the grief and live meaningful lives.
I want to ensure that I am not spoiling the book, so I cannot give as detailed an opinion as I would like. I will say that the way Nora Roberts develops these characters made me invested in their lives. They became real, 3-dimensional people about whom I cared very much. I enjoyed the delicate way she described their struggle with grief and ultimately their resolve to survive and thrive. The way she was able to weave their lives together felt organic, not forced.
To top that awesomeness off, she then overlays the tension of an unidentified co-conspirator in the shooting who methodically seeks revenge on those that survived.
I really loved this book, could not put it down!