Spring Break
'Northern Lights' romantic thriller
Katie Taylor
Issue date: 4/2/09 Section: Features
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Set in the fictional small town of Lunacy, Alaska, "Northern Lights" begins with the murder of a mountain climber named Pat Galloway. Galloway's assailant is a fellow climber who leaves the frozen body of Galloway in a remote cave on a mountain called No Name.
Unknown to his fellow neighbors, the murderer remains at large in Lunacy. That is, until the new police chief of Lunacy arrives from Boston. Chief Nate Burke not only stumbles into the town of a murderer but also falls in love with the deceased Galloway's daughter, Meg, a prop plane pilot and Lunacy native.
Burke has a shrouded past as well: he relocated to Alaska to try to move on with his life after his police partner and best friend were killed in action back in Boston. While Burke struggles to come to terms with the grief he feels over his friend's death, he also tries to win the affection of the independent Meg Galloway and solve her father's murder.
The book is mostly presented through Meg Galloway and Burke's point of view but also features journal entries from the last days of Pat Galloway's climb on No Name.
Previously achieving the number one spot on the New York Times Bestseller list as a novel, "Northern Lights" was made into a movie and premiered Saturday, March 21 on the Lifetime network.
Country singer Leann Rimes (whose music has been featured in movies such as "Coyote Ugly" and "Evan Almighty") stars as Meg Galloway. The movie was a much more condensed version of Roberts' 637-page novel; however, the acting was well done and followed the character development laid out by Roberts in the book. Roberts' fans will enjoy the movie and relish the original novel.
The premiere of "Northern Lights" on Lifetime kicked off the "2009 Nora Roberts Collection" that includes three other Lifetime movie adaptations of her books.
This past Saturday was the premiere of "Midnight Bayou" starring Jerry O'Connell ("Scream 2," "Sliders").
"High Noon" will debut on April 4 at 9 p.m. and "Tribute" starring Brittany Murphy ("Little Black Book") premieres on April 11 at 9 p.m.
This writer can be contacted at features@theeastcarolinian.com.
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