371
Pages
Publisher:
Piatkus
Blurb
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, his case in
particular has unsettling echoes of her own troubled past.
My thoughts
After having done so 43 times
before today I’m running out of ways to rave about these ‘In Death’ books. In fact,
it’s probably fair to say I ran out of ideas several books ago. So I’m going to
keep it simple. I adore these books. I adore the characters in them. And I
adore the horrific crimes the amazing (and somewhat scary) imagination of Nora
Roberts, in the guise of J.D. Robb. She really has a special talent for coming
up with sick twisted bastards which is as fabulous as it is somewhat
disturbing. J
But it is of course more than
that. In fact, one thing I adore about this series and always eagerly
anticipate, is the wonderful balance between the tension caused by horrifying
crimes and the subsequent investigation, and laugh out loud funny
conversations. The following fragment is a good example of the latter:
“(…)
If Mira’s right, we’re looking for a schmuck with an Edison thing.”
“Edison?
Like Thomas?”
“Who’s
Edison Thomas?”
“I
mean Thomas Edison. The inventor?” Peabody explained. “The lightbulb?”
“No,
for Christ’s sake, this isn’t about lightbulbs. Like the sicko guy who married
his own mother, than whined about it.”
After
a moment’ confusion, Peabody’s own lightbulb went off. “That’s Oedipus. I’m
pretty sure that’s Oedipus.”
“Edison,
Oedipus, Platypus. Whatever.”
Or how about this one:
‘“(…)
she used to purchase a sheep station in Porongurup — that’s Australia.”
“Why
do sheep need a station? Are they catching trains? Where are they going? Why do
they have to go there?”
“I
imagine they find themselves herded onto trains from time to time, but a sheep
station’s a ranch.”
“Then
why do they call it a station?”
“Blame
the Aussies.”’
What I really love about these
books — apart from the well plotted and imaginative (some might say scarily
imaginative) mysteries, the fast and well constructed conversations, the
wonderful interactions between the various characters, and the vivid
descriptions of New York City in the 2050’s — is the relationship between Eve
and Roarke. It doesn’t really play a major role in the plots anymore, not after
all these books and all the time they’ve spent together , but it’s always there.
And in every single ‘In Death’ book there has been at
least one moment when an interaction between Roarke and Eve brought tears to my
eyes. With every book their relationship grows, deepens, becomes even more
beautiful than it was before. And it’s an utter joy — a bit like watching two
friends you’re very fond of getting every closer to each other.
I’m not entirely sure what else
to say. This book is great. The series is fabulous. And if you haven’t read the
In
Death books by J.D. Robb yet, you probably should. That’s all.
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