High Noon by Nora Roberts

High Noon - Phoebe MacNamara learned at an early age how to be a hostage negotiator, from the hostage’s viewpoint. David McVee was the negotiator then and became the father figure in her fatherless home. Now she is a Lieutenant under Captain McVee and she has a 7 year old daughter of her own and is responsible for her agoraphobic mother, Essie, and her companion, Ava. As the top negotiator for Savannah she also trains the police to handle the situations until a negotiator arrives to take over. Not all men in the department are able to handle a women superior and Phoebe has words with a subordinate who subsequently loses a hostage taker and blames her.

Phoebe is violently and sexually attacked in the station house. She is also receiving dead animals on her doorstep. But she is also being wooed by a lottery winner who will not let her say no.

Roberts has created characters that become part of your life. You do not want to put this book down even when you finish reading the last page.