A "powerfully rendered" (Chicgo Tribune) tale from the #1 New York Times bestselling author-now in a French flap trade edition.

Photographer Jo Ellen Hathaway thought she'd escaped the house called Sanctuary long ago. She'd spent her loneliest years there, after the sudden, unexplained disappearance of her mother. Yet the sprawling inn off the Georgia coast continues to haunt her dreams. And now, even more haunting are the pictures someone is sending her: strange close-ups and candids, culminating in the most shocking portrait of all-a photo of her mother- naked, beautiful, and dead.

Now Jo must return to the island, and to her bitterly estranged family-and, with the help of one man, learn the truth about the tragic past. But Sanctuary may be the most dangerous place of all.

A great book! A real page turner with lots of suspense! I would recommend this book to anyone. You simply cannot put it down.

Jo Ellen, a reknown photographer has returned to her home after recieving several photos that contained the image of her missing mother. Determined to center herself, Jo has returned to the one place where she feels safe, Sanctuary. While returning to her roots makes her reflect on one of the most painful times in her life (her mother's disappearance) she finds love, in a childhood friend, Nathan. Surrounded by her siblings, a brother who has turned to cooking and a sister, who wants to be an actress and a father, who is extremely bitter, Jo realizes that she is being stalked and that her mother's disappearance may not be what it initially seemed and that her new love, Nathan may have information that will destroy her world. I enjoyed this novel, although I don't think you will be surprised by the ending, and would recommend that you read it if you like traditional Nora Roberts (romance, suspense and mystery).

Terrific book. It has lots of action with serious romantic tension. It keeps you guessing until the end. I loved this story.

What a Sanctuary!!!Where damaged people live and rape and murder going on. I had started this book and had the TV on Lifetime and lo and behold the Lifetime movie was Sanctuary. Okay so I watched it and not impressed but decided to finish the book. The book is tons better than the movie. However I had to skim the murder/rape scenes. Okay so I'm sqimmish! I'm wondering how many books can have this same scenario of the damaged people because their parents didn't show them love and etc, so they can't love and they shove people away from them. I have read several Nora Roberts books lately with this scenario. I'm reading Hidden Riches at the moment and same scenario. I think that is why I liked her newest book "High Noon" because she got away from that formula and had 2 strong people come together. The hero could have been damaged because of his childhood but didn't let it. I like this formula much better. Getting back to Sanctuary, it's an okay read but probably not one I would read again. Yesterday Lifetime showed all of Nora Roberts movies based on her books and there was not one as good as the book. Even the actors playing the parts weren't right to me after reading the books. I wouldn't have pictured them as the movie does. The one playing Nathan in Sanctuary didn't even come close to what I pictured reading the book. There were characters left out and the Mother was murdered by Nathan's father not his brother. Well as they say, it's based on the book;that's about all!Anyway, if you have seen the movie, read the book; it's better.

I used to enjoy Nora Roberts' books for their wry humor, interesting characters, and snappy dialog. But her plots have been growing more and more formulaic: Tough, gorgeous heroine with a successful professional life and a ton of baggage obstructing her relationships is stalked by a serial killer whose acts become more and more savage as the book continues, often to the point of being ridiculously over the top. The heroine's friends and family are slowly killed off before she finally realizes what is going on, leading to a surprisingly anticlimatic finale. For me to truly consider a book a mystery, it must be a challenge to deduce the culprit. I have been able to deduce the killer's identity so early on in these books that I'm just left to focus on the romance, and though Roberts still can write one heck of a steamy passage it gels uneasily with scenes of stomach-churning brutality. As in "Blue Smoke", I found the murder scenes in "Sanctuary" to be overdone to the point of tastelessness (and Roberts seems to have an off-putting fascination with rape and quasi-rape throughout this book). I'm also not one easily satisfied with the "he was crazy, that was why he did what he did, there's no logical reason" hook that these works hang on.

It seems as if Roberts is trying to write for the broadest market possible; she is losing me as a fan in the process.