Black Hills

Black Hills by Nora Roberts
Adult New Book Display-Main Level – ROBERTS

Cooper Sullivan was 11 years old the first time that he visited his grandparents ranch in South Dakota. Cooper was very unhappy to be there, he wanted to spend his summer home in New York hanging out with his friends and going to Yankee baseball games. His grandmother gives him 2 weeks to sulk and pout, once those weeks were up she made a deal with Cooper, go out and have fun and help grandpa around the ranch and they will buy a TV. Cooper realized that things are not too bad, he even found a friend. Lil Chance was the young neighbor girl. That summer the two became fast friends, riding horses and hitting baseballs in her homemade batting cage. Each summer Cooper would visit their friendship grew. One unforgettable summer Lil and Cooper realized that they wanted to be in a relationship with each other. They were inseparable all summer and had an experience neither of them will ever forget; they found the body of a young hiker.

As the years went by Lil makes her dreams come true. She is a wildlife biologist. She has opened an animal rescue on her family’s land and she travels all over the world researching different animals. Cooper struggled in life, his father wanted him to become a lawyer and join the family firm and Cooper wanted anything but that. He went on to become a policeman and later private investigator. Twelve years after they had their inseparable summer Lil and Cooper meet again.

Cooper left his job and life in New York to come back to the family ranch for good to help out his aging grandparents. Lil finally comes home from a long research trip and suddenly strange things start happening at her animal rescue. Lil tried to brush off the strange happenings but things escalate once her beloved cougar is killed. Cooper and Lil are thrown into a whirlwind of activity that has people scared in their small town. All these strange happenings and murders bring up the memory of the young hiker that Cooper and Lil found 12 years in the same hills. The wonder if the unsolved murder has anything to do with the incidents in the Black Hills of South Dakota. This is an interesting tale of suspense that spans many years and will keep you guessing all the way to the end.