This is the first Nora Roberts book I've read (under her own name, at least -- I'm a J.D. Robb fan). I thought it was pretty good. The plotlines were interesting, and I thought things were woven together well. The climax of the book was unexpected. The only thing I thought was a little too neat was the way everyone (except the villains, of course) ended up with what -- or who -- they wanted in the end. I do wonder how someone who has written 80 books can come up with enough unique story lines and situations. I'm interested in reading another of her books to see if I spot formulaic things. ( )

In the middle of a beautiful spring day, while working a backhoe digging a foundation for one of the new houses going up along the creek at the far end of town, one of the workers brings up the shovel and finds a skull grinning back at him. When it is discovered that the skull belonged to humans who lived 5000 years ago along that same creek bank, it sets off a chain of events. Archaeologists arrive in droves, headed up by Dr. Callie Dunbrook, a young hotshot with a string of impressive work under her belt. The man who owns the property, developer Ronald Dolan, doesn't want to have his worksite cluttered up by archaeologists and when they get an injunction to stop him from building on his own land, he's more than pissed. Legend has it that the woods around this site are haunted anyway, and when Dolan's body is found floating in the creek the day after a major confrontation on site, it's anybody's guess who did it. Rumor's of a sort of "mummy's curse" cloud the dig and seem to be affirmed by a second death on site. But Dr. Dunbrook's got another problem that is of a more personal nature. After an appearance on a local news program talking about the dig, she receives a visit from a local woman who is convinced that she is the daughter that was stolen from a stroller in the mall 30 years ago. While Callie tries to brush off the woman's claims, her scientific mind won't let her until she uncovers the truth, layer by layer, just as she does at the dig. And what she learns is unsettling and shakes the very foundations of her life. It's a strange feeling to learn that you aren't who you thought you were. And matters aren't helped any when Callie's boss brings in the best anthropologist available to help on the dig and she looks up from her work to come face to face with her ex-husband.

Ok, so this is Nora Roberts and there's going to be some hot steamy romance scenes in this book. That's a given. But she writes them well, IMO, and they don't seem to intrude on the plot too much. This book has a good story with lots of twists and turns. I had the "bad guys" pegged all wrong, which is always refreshing. And Ms. Roberts is a master at writing dialog and creating characters that are multi-dimensional and people that you feel like you know by the end of the book. This was a good little book for summertime escapism and I'll give it a 4.5. ( )

Callie was sifting thorugh 5 thousand year old bones, she was noticed on TV by her real mother because of her 3 dimples and her eyes. Finding she had been stolen and was now 29 was difficult, but she approached it the way she did everything. Calculating time periods and people involved. Murder & romance. Jake was so protective of her and had never signed divorce papers. Doug her brother was great, as well as the attorney. ( )

Booklist Review: The discovery of 5,000-year-old bones in a development site in Maryland lures archaeologist Callie Dunbrook away from her sabbatical to head up the excavation team, but once she finds out the team’s head anthropologist is her ex-husband, Jacob “Jake” Graystone, Callie is ready to quit. The project already faces difficulties with local residents, who are split between those who favor continuing with the development and those who want to preserve the area as a historic site. When a local TV news station interviews Callie about the project, it brings Suzanne Cullen to her doorstep claiming that Callie is her long-lost daughter, Jessica, who was kidnapped from a shopping mall 29 years ago. No trace of her daughter was ever found, but Suzanne never gave up hope that one day Jessica would return. Convinced that Callie is really her child, Suzanne forces Callie to look into her own past, but the answers Callie finds not only surprise her but also attract the interest of someone who does not want anyone digging into the past. With its compelling, realistically flawed hero and heroine, whose clever banter is spiced with just the right amount of acerbic wit, and a sleek plot that unwinds to a wonderfully satisfactory conclusion, RITA award-winning, New York Times best-selling Roberts’ latest combination of romance and suspense is pure reading magic.
(Reviewed January 1, 2003) -- John Charles ( )

The tension regarding the stolen baby and black market adoption is so strong that it kept me from enjoying the story. So far my least favourite of Nora Roberts, or J. D. Robb. ( )