The Mirror

Writing since 1979, Nora Roberts is the prolific author of over 200 novels, including the In Death series written under the pen name J. D. Robb. Roberts is known for her compelling characters and intricate plots that blend romance with elements of mystery and the supernatural. Like the Lost Bride series, Roberts often writes trilogies to get a larger canvas to illustrate her characters’ relationships. Themes of family, community, and self-development are central to Roberts’s novels, with a special focus on found family. This is evident in The Mirror as well, with its emphasis on the growing bonds between the four main characters. Other features of the author’s writing are her attention to setting and the blending of genres. Roberts uses sensory imagery and period details to bring her settings to life, whether it is Maine in the Lost Bride trilogy or Montana in Montana Sky (1996).

Although she is widely known as a romance novelist, Roberts’s works are frequently genre-bending, containing elements of suspense, mystery, and the supernatural. The In Death series, for instance, combines the genres of futuristic fantasy, police procedural, and romance. In The Mirror, the plotlines of the growing romances between Sonya/Trey and Cleo/Owen evolve in tandem with supernatural and gothic occurrences. As in many of Roberts’s works, the natural and the paranormal coexist in The Mirror, symbolizing the continuum between different aspects of life. Roberts also frequently advances her plots using narrative devices from different genres, such as cliffhangers and red herrings from the mystery genre, and dreams and omens from gothic romance.