Divine Evil by Nora Roberts is a romantic suspense novel that takes place in a very small town called Emmitsboro in which everyone knows everyone. The two main protagonists are Claire Kimball, an artist who creates sculptures and was living in New York City before she moved back to Emmitsboro, and Cameron Rafferty, the big-time city detective turned small town sheriff. Right from the start of the book, something is off in Emmitsboro when Cam discovers the grave of an infant that was dug up. Meanwhile, Clare is dealing with living in the house in which her father had died 12 years before in an accident while also having a reoccurring nightmare involving her father and a satanic cult. Bigger problems than an undug grave occurs in the form of a runaway gone missing near the town, Cam’s stepfather being found murdered, and the deputy’s sister also gone missing. Slowly Cam and Claire begin to piece together that there is a satanic cult in the area made up of members of their small town and that Claire’s nightmare is actually a memory from when she was very little. In the end, all the secrets of Emmitsboro are revealed and those behind the murders are brought to justice.

One thing that I really liked about Divine Evil is that it didn’t just focus on Claire and Cam, but rather gave perspective for all the members of the small town. Readers get to know Ernie (Claire’s disturbed teenage neighbor), Min Atherton (the nosy mayor’s wife), and Alice (the waitress at the most popular diner in town) among others on a much deeper level than normal authors give their side characters. Further, even extremely small characters that are only present for a few scenes are given a few pages from their perspective which added so much to the novel. Throughout Divine Evil, readers try to piece together which members are in the cult and sometimes, it was characters we had already gotten to know.

It almost felt like the romance story between Cam and Claire was almost a side note in the story due to the action that was constantly going on. The passion and chemistry between the two was undeniable, and it was a real treat to see the two of them fall in love. They had known each other back in high school, but had been completely different people back then. Seeing them rekindle their friendship and then develop a relationship really added to their journey as a couple.

Overall, I would rate Divine Evil by Nora Roberts an 8.9/10. It was the type of book that I couldn’t put down no matter how graphic some of the scenes got. The way Roberts developed all her characters gave the novel an extra element that I normally don’t see in books.

Roberts, Nora. Divine Evil: A Novel. Reissue, Bantam, 1992.