Echoes in Death. J. D. Robb

Published:  Hachette NZ
Date: February 7th 2017
Format: Trade Paperback
Pages:371
Genre: Suspense
Source:Thank you to Hachette NZ
Rating:
                   

New York at night. A young woman stumbles out on to a busy street - right in front of Lieutenant Eve Dallas and husband Roarke. Her name is Daphne Strazza, and she has been brutally assaulted. Confused and traumatised, she manages to tell them one thing. Her attacker wore a devil's mask.

As Eve investigates this shocking case, she soon discovers a disturbing pattern. Someone is preying on wealthy couples, subjecting them to a cruel and terrifying ordeal. Worse still, the attacks are escalating in violence and depraved theatricality. Eve and her team are now in a race against time to find the man behind the mask - before he strikes again. But for Eve, this case in particular has unsettling echoes of her own troubled past...

Echoes in Death is #44 in the series. It seems an awful lot but every book is excellent as we watch Eve Dallas, Roarke and Eve's team go in to bat for those who have been murdered.

Every story is different, yet there is often a very egotistical killer, and this one has an ego the size of a city. Yet he in the end is no match for Eve as she carefully builds the details to bring him down. The young woman Eve and Roarke find  - Daphne - awakens in Eve memories of her own experiences and it seems to me that she is learning to deal and move on. She has the love of Roarke, her main support. And of course she is a strong woman. However her past experience helps her walk in the shoes of Daphne and understand her like no other cop would be able to.  

There is the usual banter between friends, the fun of the others on the team seeing Eve's new work space at home and Eve's own enjoyment of it. Somerset is a little in the background this time but he's there and so is the cat, another little bulwark for Eve.

The murders are different to any others J. D. Robb has come up with, she has an amazing ability to set up a murderer and his motives, reveal his warped mind and then unravel them all through Eve. This murderer like all the other ones really, is very very unlikeable. There is a little twist at the end, I should have seen it coming but I didn't and loved how that was dealt with.

Peabody and Eve continue to work as a team and there are little indications that Peabody is growing more and more in stature and Eve is the best of leaders and teachers. She gives to Peabody before Peabody even realises she is taking a new step. 

Verdict: Thoroughly great yarn.

Apprentice in Death. J. D. Robb

Published: Hachette NZ
Date: 6th September 2016
Format: Paperback
Pages: 375
Genre: Crime
Source: Thanks to Hachette NZ
Rating:
                           

The shots came quickly, silently, and with deadly accuracy. Within seconds, three people were dead at Central Park’s ice skating rink. There's a sniper loose on the streets of New York City, and Lieutenant Eve Dallas is about to face one of the toughest and most unsettling cases of her career.

Eve knows tha tonly a handfuul of people could have carried out such an audacious but professional hit. Even more disturbing: this expert in death has an accomplice. Someone is being trained in the science of killing - and they have a terrifying agenda of their own. With a city shaken to its core, Eve and her team are forced to hunt not one but two killers. Worse still - the talented young apprentice has developed an insatiable taste for murder....

In #43 of the In Death series we find Eve and her team dealing with a long range laser rifle murderer. The book opens with a chilling killing at a ice skating rink. Soon Eve is asking why, who was the target among those who are dead and where did the shots come from?  And knowing Eve we know she is going to hunt down the answers and the murderer. However will she do it before that laser rifle is used again?

The story is all the more chilling because of the shootings we have seen on our TV screens in our world of today. In this science fiction story there is a deadly killer at work. It turns out it is an apprentice, and Eve is thrown into thinking about her own teachers and those she has mentored. However there is good and bad in the world and there is choice. Some choose to learn to foster good and some are so twisted and evil. 

With ruthlessness and objectivity Eve follows up on every detail, ready to put her own body on the line when necessary. She has her usual team there for support - especially Peabody and Roarke. She sets traps, makes wily use of some of her friends... and of course she gets her target. In a way it is formulaic, but each time it is clever and entertaining as we watch Eve at work.

I enjoyed seeing Eve being really aware of how important friendships have become for her, and when some of them are put in a little jeopardy it cuts to her heart. I also loved how the development of her new office at home rounds out and the continuing love of Roarke.

A little light relief is provided by little one year old Bella who totally adores her birthday gift from Eve and Roarke and who shows even as a one year old the goodness that can abide in a heart, in contrast to the deadly killer. 

Ah yes, J. D. Robb does it again.

Brotherhood in Death. J. D. Robb

Brotherhood in Death
J.D.Robb
Published: Piatkus/Hachette NZ
Date: 9th February 2016
Format: Paperback
Pages: 388
Genre: Crime
Source: Thank you to Hachette NZ

Dennis Mira just had two unpleasant surprises. First he learned that his cousin Edward was secretly meeting with a real estate agent about their late grandfather’s magnificent West Village brownstone, despite the promise they both made to keep it in the family. Then, when he went to the house to confront Edward about it, he got a blunt object to the back of the head.

Luckily Dennis is married to Charlotte Mira, the NYPSD’s top profiler and a good friend of Lieutenant Eve Dallas. When the two arrive on the scene, he explains that the last thing he saw was Edward in a chair, bruised and bloody. When he came to, his cousin was gone. With the mess cleaned up and the security disks removed, there’s nothing left behind but a few traces for forensics to analyze.

Brotherhood in Death is #42 in the In Death series. You'd think it would be slightly jaded by now, but no way! As always with this series, Brotherhood in Death entertains and enthralls and at times managed to totally disgust me! Brotherhood has such friendly connotations, but it turns out in this case, it is totally chilling. Now I know that in this world of Dallas and company, the word used to mark something totally great is 'iced' or 'frosty'. Nope this book is chilling in a whole different sense.

Eve has a special affection for Dennis Mira. Who among us who reads this series with fanaticism doesn't? This absent minded, gentle and loving husband of  Dr. Mira (whom we love too), the guy who generally has his cardigan buttons mismatched - is to the centre left of this drama. He might be a little absent minded but his mind is sharp where it matters, so is his eye and heart. So it is with dismay that we learn that all this has not rubbed off on his cousin Edward, who is something of a totally different ilk.

Eve goes to work when  Edward Mira goes missing. And when she finds him - well not a pretty picture. As she delves deeper into the case she finds some very unpalatable facts. With her trusty team - and of course that includes Roarke she begins the long mission to investigate and of course solve the case. As so often happens it connects into some of her personal history and leaves her somewhat shattered at times. 

I am not going to expand on the plot any further, as always the best part is following along one step at a time with Eve and Peabody and the team. The crime is abhorrent and the supposed justice meted out equally so. Yikes I think, why do I read this?

It's because of the relationships, the next step for Trueheart, the dialogue between the likes of Eve and Peabody. The fear Eve has of change or the mention that Peabody and McNabb might engage in sex. There is humour, there is healing, there is friendship and love. The Miras and Eve and Roarke such loving couples. There is Eve standing for those who can't. Look - I know this is a long series, I own I sneaked up about ten in the series to read this one, but I will go back and catch up, I have it planned!

And by the way if you have never listened to any of this series on audiobook, then you must. I have listened to some and I hear the voices in my head as I read.

About The Author:

Nora Roberts published her first novel using the pseudonym J. D. Robb in 1995, introducing to readers the tough as nails but emotionally damaged homicide cop Eve Dallas and billionaire Irish rogue, Roarke. With the In Death series, Robb has become one of the biggest thriller writers on earth, with each new novel reaching number one on bestseller charts the world over.

Strangers in Death. J. D. Robb

Strangers in Death
J. D. Robb
Published: Piatkus
Date: 1st pub 2008, this edition 2013
Format: Paperback
Pages: 446
Genre:
Source: Thank you to Helen @HachetteNZ
Rating:
                           

Scandalous death sells papers. But as the media frenzy feeds on the wealthy Thomas Anders, strangled to death with a black velvet rope in his plush Park Avenue apartment, Lieutenant Eve Dallas grapples with one question: a crime of passion or a cold extermination.

Strangers in Death #26 in the series, and it contains all that is good about this series. This one takes a slightly different tack in that there is no serial killer that Eve and her team are working non stop to get ahead of. Or wait, could there have been one at work?

Loved the little bits like Eve stopping to interact with the young boy Tiko who sold her a scarf a few books back. I also liked the development for Charles and Louise, who when the book opens seem to be struggling in some way.

The mystery of murder with Eve finally cracking the code and stage managing the final showdown, the sharp, witty dialogue, the minor characters all playing their part. For me - another winner.

Imitation in Death. J D Robb

Published:

Imitation in Death
J. D. Robb
Publisher: Berkley
Date: 2003
Format: Paperback
Pages: 342
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Source: Local Library

Summer, 2059. A man wearing a cape and a top hat approaches a prostitute on a dark, New York City street. Minutes later, the woman is dead. Left at the scene is a letter addressed to Lieutenant Eve Dallas, inviting her to play his game and unveil his identity. He signs it, "Jack."

Now Dallas is in pursuit of a murderer who knows as much about the history of serial killers as she does. He has studied the most notorious and the most vicious slayings in modern times. But he also wants to make his own mark. He has chosen his victim: Eve Dallas. And all Eve knows is that he plans to mimic the most infamous murderers of all — starting with Jack the Ripper...

Imitation in Death is #17 in the In Death series, I am slowly getting through them, at least I have reached 2003.  Like the books before, this one has been an entertaining read.

The murders are gruesome and the the murderer is a really sick guy.  However when you have Eve Dallas on the case, she'll narrow it down and go in for the catch.

In the last book we saw Roarke grapple with issues concerning his mother, and the big find that he made.  This time it is Eve as she becomes in touch with her mother and her mother issues.  They eerily mirror some of what the murderer is motivated by.  Why has Eve turned out the way she has, and why do others who had poor, unfeeling mother nurturers turn out the way they do.  It is not only the killer that has a certain type of psyche, all those under suspicion have some similarities.

As usual there are the relationships that take this series to a great level.  I enjoy how Eve refers to Roarke as 'the civilian' when she is on the job.  Of course there is McNab and Peabody to add humour and a romantic relationship as well.  Peabody is getting ever closer to sitting her Detective exams and is a bundle of nerves.  

While Eve is motherless there is the figure of Mira who is becoming more and more a mother figure for Eve.  So much so she finds herself at a cookout with Mira's family and being confronted by one of Mira's daughters about that fact.  Roarke provides a little humour here too, because just when you thought the man had everything he discovers a new toy at the cookout!

The series is certainly holding my interest, I am aiming to read about one book most months, eventually I will get nearer the 2015 mark!

Portrait in Death. J.D. Robb

Portrait in Death
J. D. Robb
Published: Piatkus
Date: May 2010  (1st published 2005)
Format: Kindle ebook
Pages: 368
Genre: Romantic suspense
Source: Own book

After a tip from a reporter, Eve Dallas finds the body of a young woman in a Delancey street dumpster. Just hours before, the news station had mysteriously received a portfolio of professional portraits of the woman. The photos seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary for any pretty young woman starting a modeling career. Except that she wasn't a model. And that these photos were taken after she had been murdered. Now Dallas is on the trail of a killer who's a perfectionist and an artist. He carefully observes and records his victim's every move. And he has a mission: to own every beautiful young woman's innocence, to capture her youth and vitality—in one fateful shot...

Portrait in Death is #16 in the In Death series by J. D. Robb.  As usual for this series I found it very good. 

• I loved the continued play between Eve and Summerset.  Eve is feeling great because she is going to have a little peace because Summerset is going on holiday.  Well he was until he has a set back.  As much as they like to stir each other up, they show their united front when it comes to caring for Roarke.  Plus Eve also shows she has an understanding side when it comes to Summerset.
• A large portion of this book is about Roarke.  He receives some information from someone he meets at the health centre he contributes to. This woman gives him some information that totally skittles him and also leads to a skirmish with Eve.  After this skirmish its good to see how Eve goes about learning what a wife might/should do in her situation.
• I admit to reaching for the tissues when Roarke  visits Ireland.  If you've read the book I think you'll know, if not I won't spoil it. 
• Oh, of course there are murders that Eve and her team are tracking down, as usual creepy and very strange.  It takes them awhile to solve and they almost lose one of their team in the process and some get a little weepy over that.  All I can say is thank goodness - because I expect to see heaps of development for this character as I read on in the series. 
• Long live Eve, Roarke, Peabody, McNabb, Somerset and so many more!

Purity in Death. J. D. Robb

Purity in Death
J. D. Robb
Published: Piatkus
Date: 2012 1st published 2002
Format:  Paperback
Pages: 384
Genre: Romantic suspense
Source: Local library

New York, the summer of 2059, and the unbearable heat drives everyone to the very edge of madness. So when homicide lieutenant Eve Dallas is called to a violent attack by a deranged man, she thinks she's in control. She couldn't be more wrong. Someone is managing to spread insanity like a virus.

There is no doubt in my mind that J. D. Robb writes great suspense.  As well as that she writes about characters I like and care about, and she often gets me with an element of surprise, just when I think I have 'solved' this one.  I was up there this time but was totally surprised/delighted to discover the way she brought the criminal down.

In this book people are dying in a spectacular way, when their brain explodes.  An email is sent by computer that invades their brain and after awhile they get raging headaches and go 'mad', sometimes they kill others as well as themselves.  Who is behind this, that is the question and why.  The why is soon very obvious but the who takes much longer.

Because Eve is not very tech minded she needs Roarke and her tech team of Feeney and McNabb and young Jamie.  Jamie we met in a previous book, his desire is to become a policeman like his murdered Grandad when he is old enough.  He likes nothing better to trash talk with the tech guys, and he is a bit of a whizz kid when it comes to all things tech.  I look forward to meeting him in later books.  Troy Trueheart, a young policeman we met too earlier on has a small cameo role, and Eve finds it difficult to step back when he runs into trouble.  She wants to 'mother' him.

McNabb and Peabody have small but important parts in this story and I think their romance is certainly developing along the 'love' path.  As usual the repartee between Eve and Peabody is great and now moving to a more 'equal' footing.  

Eve and Roarke clash a little over law and what is right, Eve thinks Roarke is on the opposite side of the fence to her but he just has a broader outlook and he helps her to see it.

#15 in the series - Purity in Death was another excellent addition to the series.  

Seduction in Death. J.D. Robb

Seduction in Death
J.D. Robb
Publisher: Piatkus
Date: 2004
Format: Large Print
Pages: 438
Genre: Suspense
Source: Local Library

Dante had been courting his victim in cyberspace for weeks before meeting her in person. A few sips of wine and a few hours later, she was dead. The murder weapon: a rare, usually undetectable date-rape drug with a street value of a quarter million dollars. Lieutenant Eve Dallas is playing and replaying the clues in her mind. The candlelight, the music, the rose petals strewn across the bed - a seduction meant for his benefit, not hers. He hadn't intended to kill her. But now that he has, he is left with only two choices: to either hole up in fear and guilt or start hunting again.

 

Seduction in Death is #13 in this series - I am slowly making my way through. The cover above is not the cover of the edition I am reading, but couldn't find it anywhere.  However it was published by Piatkus.  The cover above is much nice than the one on the book I have anyway!

Another excellent book in this series.  The bad guys are scum and Eve and the team will not rest until they bring them to justice.  Step by step she hunts them down, and of course Roarke is there in the middle of it as well.  The way Eve finds each little clue and relentlessly tracks the murderers down is very engaging.  She is ruthless and does not suffer fools gladly - when she goes on a rage - watch out!

I loved the by play between Eve and Roarke and the ever growing love between them. Somerset of course has his little cameo role, he is an irritant to Eve, but Peabody - Eve's police assistant - knows Eve well enough to let Eve  know she wouldn't be satisfied with a droid.  

Peabody and McNabb are not speaking to each other when the book opens, and their relationship plays out throughout the book, it eventually results with a confrontation with Charles - Peabody's friend whose work is that of a licensed companion.  McNabb has been thinking the worst about them.  However it this book takes Peabody and McNabb's relationship to a whole new level.

Betrayal in Death. J.D. Robb

Betrayal in Death
J.D. Robb
Publisher:Piatkus Books
Date: 2011 (1st published 2001)
Format: Paperback
Pages:432
Genre: Suspense
Source: Local Library

At the luxurious Roarke Palace Hotel, a maid walks into suite 4602 for the nightly turndown -- and steps into her worst nightmare. A killer leaves her dead, strangled by a thin silver wire. He's Sly Yost, a virtuoso of music and murder. A hit man for the elite. Lieutenant Eve Dallas knows him well. But in this twisted case, knowing the killer doesn't help solve the crime. Because there s someone else involved. Someone with a more personal motive. And Eve must face a terrifying possibility -- that the real target may, in fact, be her husband Roarke....

Betrayal in Death is #12 in the In Death series - I am reading my way through them gradually! I set out determined to work out who the murderer was before it was revealed.  However it was apparent who the murderer was right from the start.   As it says above, it's Sly Yost.  He's wanted for a number of murders.  What isn't apparent is who he is working for - someone with millions though because his fee is in accordance with his lifestyle.

Sly is murdering people that have something to do with Roarke.  He has managed two and has his sights on number three.  Eve knows it will be someone closer to Roarke next time, I guessed who it was - probably as intended - and I was saying to her put a watch on him for goodness sake.  As it turned out - she had much to the 'shall rename nameless person'.

I was suspicious of one person who could be involved and that paid off.  However not quite in the way I expected.  J. D. Robb deals with the likes of me quite easily.

In these murders Eve and her team have to work with the FBI which doesn't go down well, with either party.  So sparks fly, as they do as well between McNab and Peabody. Eve and Roarke grow closer.

This had all the hallmarks of another great read in this series, suspense, relationships, humour. Eve of course puts the clues together with her trusty team and acts in the nick of time.  I wonder how long will Eve remain a lieutenant or will she move up to captain sometime soon?