Carnal Innocence by Nora Roberts
Carnal Innocence by Nora Roberts 1991 Bantam Books
[image error]Carnal Innocence places Yankee Caroline Waverly, an overworked world-renowned violinist in a the southern town of Innocence where Tucker Longstreet is a lazy, womanizing suspect in a murder. The best way to create tension in a romance is to link opposites together. Caroline and Tucker are wary of each other from the minute he nearly runs her over in his new red sportscar.
Roberts combines the murder and romance seamlessly and one of her trademarks is to have an obvious villain and a hidden villain. Both villains are evil but the hidden one isn’t revealed until the end and is often a surprise to the reader. Roberts also plants several clues, some obvious, some subtle, to hint at what is to come.
She spends a lot of time on setting but the reader is put into a hot, lazy southern town not only in the description but the slow, rambling stories the men share that drive a Yankee crazy for them to get to the point.
Tucker and Caroline uncover secrets and truths about each other as the story progresses and help each other grow. Roberts takes her time leading to the point when they realizes they are in love. She also ramps up the danger to Caroline that takes the reader to the dramatic last pages.
Roberts brings in a lot of characters and uses them well, each with a role either in solving the murder or advancing the romance. She ties up the loose ends while opening another path that keeps the reader guessing what will happen next.
Another important lesson is if you show a gun, use it, and Roberts does just that in a surprising way.
Whether you are a fan of Roberts or not, you can learn from her writing.
In this book Roberts tells the story in third person omniscient point of view and slides easily into each characters’ thoughts even if it’s only for a few paragraphs. It can cause pause as the reader tries to figure out what character is sharing his/her thoughts at the time. It helps to reveal inner feelings, but some of the characters could have shared thoughts verbally or through action. But you can’t argue with success.
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