He is as handsome as she is beautiful, and soon they are sleeping together. Instead, he is there for her when she needs it, and knows to back off when she needs space.

Nevertheless, he isn’t thrown either by the house full of women where she lives or by the demands of her high-stakes job. As their relationship grows and deepens, Phoebe at first tries her best to hold Duncan at arm’s length. Now he stays busy starting businesses and renovating property he also helps people who need it along the way. Duncan Swift, the landlord, used to work for a living until he won $138 million in the lottery. Watching Phoebe ably talk Joe down, the man who owns the building where Joe was perched is intrigued by this competent woman. Bartender Joe Ryder, whose wife has just left him, is now sitting on a ledge in his boxers, holding a gun to his head. One day, Phoebe is called to the scene of a man threatening to throw himself off the roof a building. Not only is her family dependent on her, but Phoebe is also completely responsible for Carly, her seven-year-old daughter, whose deadbeat father isn’t a reliable presence in her life. Essie’s evil sister, Bess, never got over having to house the family after the incident, and in her will irrevocably tied Phoebe to the beautiful McNamara House mansion – neither she nor her entire extended family can leave. However, her mother, Essie, has become an agoraphobic, and her brother, Carter, still has PTSD-like flashbacks to the event. Phoebe has used the memory to become a police lieutenant and Savannah, Georgia’s top hostage negotiator. Even now, the repercussions of that day ripple through her life. When she was twelve years old, Phoebe MacNamara was a victim of a home invasion at the hands of a mentally unstable man who held her family hostage for hours before they were rescued by a hostage negotiator. The plot follows the adventures of a police detective whose life is complicated by an unexpected love affair with a supportive millionaire and by a series of life-threatening situations when an unhinged murderer decides to target her for imagined past wrongs. Bestselling author Nora Roberts published her combination romance and thriller novel High Noon in 2007.

Year one nora roberts summary