Sacred Sins

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Brilliant
Review: "Sacred Sins" is one of Nora Roberts' older works from the 1980's. None-the-less, it is a fantastic read, filled with sexual tension, suspense, mystery and intrigue.
Top psychiatrist Dr. Tess Court has been convinced by her senator grandfather to help the police catch a serial killer. Her profile on the killer, nicknamed "The Priest", indicates a disturbed and terrifying mind at work.
Detective Ben Paris doesn't have much respect for psychiatrists after his brother's unsuccessful treatment of post-war depression, which ended in tragedy. Ben doesn't care about profiles and motivations; he just wants to get his man. Ben and his partner, Detective Ed Jackson, are a wonderful odd-couple, and their interaction provides readers with some wonderfully witty and amusing scenes.
Tess and Ben continue to work together because they both have a common goal - stopping "The Priest". As they spend time together, a powerful attraction develops between them, and Tess and Ben's relationship blooms into a passionate romance.
As Ben and Tess work to catch the killer and delve deeper into his mind, it becomes apparent that Tess may be his next target, and his only hope for salvation!
Now Ben can only wait, and pray that when this madman decides to go for Tess, he will be in time to stop him.
"Sacred Sins" is a truly entertaining and exciting read. I was completely absorbed by the story and enjoyed every minute of it. Nora Roberts has once again created rich and realistic characters who will win readers' hearts and has crafted a top-notch tale guaranteed to leave readers sated and happy!

Rating:
Summary: I'm in love with Ben and Ed!
Review: AND Nora Roberts, ofcourse! They are her creation after all! It is always a pleasure to read a Roberts book. She always makes you feel like you know the characters so well. She goes deep into their personalities, complicated as they are, and turns them from mere words on papers to actual people that you fall in love with! Tess and Ben are both strong, intelligent people. She's a successful psychiatrist that really cares, and he's one hell of a homocide detective... who isn't really keen on psychiatrists. They come together to catch a serial killer, and reading their struggle to accept and understand each other is very enjoyable indeed. As well, Ben's partner, Ed, is really cute!

Rating:
Summary: I'm in love with Ben and Ed!
Review: AND Nora Roberts, ofcourse! They are her creation after all! It is always a pleasure to read a Roberts book. She always makes you feel like you know the characters so well. She goes deep into their personalities, complicated as they are, and turns them from mere words on papers to actual people that you fall in love with! Tess and Ben are both strong, intelligent people. She's a successful psychiatrist that really cares, and he's one hell of a homocide detective... who isn't really keen on psychiatrists. They come together to catch a serial killer, and reading their struggle to accept and understand each other is very enjoyable indeed. As well, Ben's partner, Ed, is really cute!

Rating:
Summary: Not fast paced or intriguing enough
Review: I didn't find that this book had enough intrigue and suspense to keep me interested. I found the relationship between Tess and Ben to be a little too important in the book. It was more prevalent than the story line. What was that again? Oh Yeah.... a man is murdering women and they've dubbed him "the priest". Well, I would've liked that story line developed a little more than the romance. If you want to read this for suspense, don't bother.

Rating:
Summary: As usual, great characters, great chills and thrills!
Review: I wouldn't say this is Nora Roberts' best, but it was certainly a great thriller and wonderful, believable characters that you couldn't help rooting for! The idea of a priest's garments used to kill the victims was great. The idea of a psychiatrist, our protagonist, Dr. Tess Court, being used to do a psychological profile and continuing on in the case, was a great idea, and brought a super character to life. The doubting cop, Ben Paris, also was believable, as cops think counseling is "hokie." The fireworks between the two were entertaining to see.

A bit less of the sex scenes than usual, don't know if that's good or bad! I guess depending on who the reader is. The romance was all there, though, and the tension between the lovers. The murders could have been a little spookier, and, as Roberts is famous for the macabre, they could have been a little more gruesome for the morbidly curious!

As usual, Roberts includes a mixture of love and a scary thriller. Wonderful, fast read!

Rating:
Summary: The start of a love affair w/Nora's books!
Review: In March of 1997, I asked readers of Nora Roberts & Patricia Cornwell to convince me which author's stories I should try next. I was convinced to try Nora -- with a little nudge from Nora (she posts on boards on AOL). Nora suggested that I pick up a couple of her titles from used bookstores and see if I liked them or not.

My first read was SACRED SINS. Now, a year and a half later, my life has completely changed -- all due to reading this WINNER and meeting Nora & her wonderful, wonderful fans (w/them, we created a website in Nora's honor!).

I digress.

Why should you read SACRED SINS? When I first read it, I could NOT put it down. I wanted to not only read about the developing relationship between Ben & Tess, but I also wanted to find out who was killing these women in Washington, D.C. My initial impression was that it was a good, fast read.

Then, in June, I re-read it. It was even BETTER the second time around. In fact, I put it right up there as my favorite romantic/suspense stories of Nora's -- with DIVINE EVIL, MONTANA SKY, CARNAL INNOCENCE, & her DEATH books.

Why is SACRED SINS such a great read? First, you have a very believable killer. Second, you have real cops in Ben & in Ed (read BRAZEN VIRTUE for Ed's story) -- their rapport is outstanding. Third, you have a very true-to-heart developing relationship between Tess & Ben. Fourth, Tess is extremely convincing as a psychiatrist. Her attempts to reach Joey were so compelling -- I wanted to reach into the book & slap his parents -- this was as real as it gets. Nora wrenched my heart w/it.

This is an excellent story to give to a NON-reader of romances -- who believes that he/she knows what romances are all about. While there is romance in this story, the emphasis is on the suspense -- wondering who the killer really is.

Rating:
Summary: Not fast paced or intriguing enough
Review: The novel Sacred Sins is an exhilarating adventure involving a woman and a man on a trail of a crazy killer. During the story they find themselves on the verge of dangerously falling in love. This novel will make you want to keep reading and reading until you reach the end. While reading the novel there will be many moments that will make you want to flip to the last few pages to figure out the ending of the novel.
The novel Sacred Sins begins at the end of a miserable two-week long heat wave in Washington D.C. The heat wave is the city�s top news story. But the headlines quickly change when a young woman is found strangled to death with a priest�s white silk amice pulled firmly around her throat. Pinned to the priest�s amice is a note that simply reads her sins have forgiven her. This first murder is followed by a second and then a third and then a fourth. Soon the young woman�s death becomes the front page story in all local papers. Suddenly the headlines have nicknamed the murderer as �The Priest.� The slayings of these young women catches the attention of Dr. Tess Court, a superlative psychiatrist dedicated to treating the problems of the human mind. With the police making little progress in solving the crimes of �The priest�, Dr. Court is called in to create a detailed psychological profile of the murderer; she come up with a troubling portrait of a twisted soul who believes he is not committing murders, but rather ministering to his victims. Detective Ben Pairs does not care at all about the killer�s mind. He makes his opinion very clear to everyone that calling in a psychiatrist is useless act that will not help solve the crimes.
Even though Detective Paris objects to the meddling of a psychiatrist in the case. He can not face the fact that he can�t dismiss his attraction to Dr. Court. He finds Dr. Court very attractive and irresistible. Detective Paris is a very tall, handsome, and dark skinned man with a reputation that is well-known with the ladies. However, Dr. Court does not react to Detective Pairs like the other women in his life. Now that Detective Pairs and Dr. Court are thrown into solving the murders together the flames of wild hot passion are soon ignited. But someone else has their eye on this beautiful tall blonde, someone who dreams of cleaning her soul and saving her from all of her sins. Dr. Court starts receiving telephone calls from �the priest.� She is sure that she can help the madman with counseling. Detective Pairs worries if he will be able to keep Dr. Court from becoming �the priest�s� next victim. Will Detective Paris be able to put a stop to �the priest�s� reign of terror? Will Dr. Court be able to stop him with counseling before time runs out? Will Detective Pairs and Dr. Court find love with each other?
This book is definitely a page turner for anyone who is into murder mysteries with a touch of love mixed in. I would recommend the novel Sacred Sins to any murder mystery lover. I would also recommend the novel to romance lovers. The novel depicts a very believable storyline. The novel contains profanity through out so I would not recommend the book to anyone you would be offended by this kind of language.
I would give the novel a grade of an A. The book kept my interest from the first page one to very last page. And as with every good murder mystery the novel has a great surprise ending.

Rating:
Summary: An Oldie but a Goodie
Review: The weather isn't the only thing heating up in Washington D.C. A young, blond woman is found strangled. The murder weapon is a white, silk priest's amice. Attached to the victim is a note, "Her Sins Are Forgiven." Police detective Ben Paris is part of the special investigations team assigned to the "priest" case, along with his long-time friend and partner, Ed Jackson. When psychiatrist Dr. Tess Court joins the investigation team, not everyone is pleased. Is Tess getting too close to the case? Is she getting too close to Ben? SACRED SINS is one of Nora Roberts' earlier suspense novels. I recently read her latest, THE VILLA, and find that her style of writing and character development has really grown over the years in comparison. Nevertheless, I enjoyed SACRED SINS. It's well-written, starts off with a bang to reel you in, and shocks you in the end. I found myself appreciating the relationship between the two detectives, Ben and Ed, more than the relationship between Ben and Tess. But maybe it's just me.

Rating:
Summary: Yuck!!
Review: The words seem to flow into a living thing, and the idea of this Sacred Sin is intriguing. Unfortunately, though, I couldn't believe in the string of events that transpired to put so many unlikely characters together, and I definitely couldn't believe in characters who constantly said they couldn't believe themselves or what they had just done, and what annoyed me the most was the characters were so ultra cool or ultra stupid or ultra rude or worst of all ultra heroic; nobody was normal. (Or Real!)

Rating:
Summary: My first Nora Roberts book
Review: This is the first book by Nora Roberts that I have ever read. As most of the reviews have implied, it is a good book. It is not as if the book is suspense packed but I had no idea who the felon was till the very end and I give the book a 4-star for that mysterious edge.

The book is centered on "The Priest", a name given to the murderer by the media. In order to understand the mind of the killer and to understand why s/he has chosen such mysterious patterns of killings, a beautiful psychologist, Dr. Theresa Court is called in. Ben is one of the detectives working on the case and has a problem with Dr. Court but not with Tess. He has problems with psychologists because of a nasty experience in his past.

The book is divided into 3 parts:-

a). "The Priest":- The sub-plot about the priest was pretty good. It did not have much suspense about it but the mystery surrounding it all was shrouded excellently well. However, this sub-plot did not begin to thicken till the middle of the book.3 ½ stars.

b). Tess' and her patient, Joey:- This sub-plot was not really developed, reasonably so since it was more a "side-plot" of the book. The end of it was pretty touching. 3 ½ stars.

c). Tess and Ben: - The weak romance stories you can find in a usual Mills and Boon book. A relationship on a weak, if not non-existent, foundation. 2 star.

All in all, it was a really good book. I have 4 more of Nora's works to read and I can say I look forward to them all.