Key of Light

Nora Roberts

1/2/2004

Malory Price accepts a strange invitation to the local "castle" in Western Pennsylvania. When she arrives at the cocktail party, she discovers she is one of three guests. Dana Steele and Zoe McCourt are the other two women invited. The three are all at a crossroads in life with job troubles and little money.

Their unusual hosts offer them an oddly compelling challenge. They are invited to join a quest for mythological keys to free some Celt demi-goddesses from a 3,000 year sleep. They will receive a sum of money if they accept, a larger sum if all three succeed, and if they fail, they will lose a year of their lives. They agree.

Malory is the first chosen to find a key. Now she has one month to figure out the clue, find the key, and return with it to the strange couple in the castle. She expects the search to be difficult. After all, the search for the keys began 3,000 years earlier and no one has succeeded up until now. She expects help from Dana and Zoe. If she finds her key, they'll be next and will need her assistance. But she doesn't expect Flynn Hennesy, the local newspaper editor, and his big dog, Moe. Nor does she expect his friends, Jordan Hawke and Brad Vane. Yet somehow the original three become six, and the men are obviously as necessary as the women to discover the puzzle of the keys.

Key of Light is the first novel in Nora Roberts' Key trilogy. This is Malory and Flynn's story, but the other four characters are involved as well. It includes Celtic mythology and modern day investigation. It involves good, evil, love, hate, loyalty and cheating. Malory, Dana, and Zoe are up against Celtic gods. Mortals can be manipulated by those gods if they choose and the people are willing.

I enjoyed this novel, although it isn't a strong as I expected. I found it too easy to set the book down in the middle of a scene without regret for the interruption. It not only has to set up the story for all three novels, Key of Light, Key of Knowledge, and Key of Valor, but bring Malory and Flynn together and locate the first key. Malory is a strong woman knowledgeable about art, a necessary ingredient needed to find her key. Flynn is a man who has been hurt by love in the past, and isn't ready for her. Yet, as expected, love and strength prevail.

The Key Trilogy books are at or your local bookstore.

Notice: Explicit sexual situations