352 pages
Publisher: Piatkus
Blurb
“He needed
killing.
She’d
researched, studied, planned the who, when, how and why for more than a year
and had chosen Nigel B. McEnroy to be the first.”
When a family man is tortured, killed
and left in front of his family home for all the world to see, Eve Dallas knows
she is on the hunt for a particularly dangerous killer.
But death uncovers secrets and the
killer leaves a note revealing the victim to be far from the family man he
appears. As Eve scrambles to find out what she can to link victim and killer,
another body is found. Another man with a dark and murky past.
The race is on before the killer
strikes again but Eve must wrestle with her demons and her conscience as she
decides whether she really wants to protect men who probably deserve everything
they get...
Review
For the first time ever, I’m
reviewing an In Death title by J.D Robb before it is actually
available in the shops. I’m totally addicted to this series and usually bring
the latest edition home as soon as it arrives in the library branch where I
work, so being fast with my review isn’t new—beating the publication date is. 😊
So, how did I get my hands on an
early copy you ask? Well, picture this:
Nora Roberts was recently on holidays
in Ireland (check out her blog for wonderful descriptions and photos) and took an afternoon out of her travel schedule to meet with about
170 readers/fans in the gorgeous The Lodge at Ashford Castle. I booked a ticket
to the event as soon as I found out about it, turned it into a long overdue
weekend trip to Ireland’s west coast, and enjoyed every single minute of it.
The ‘meet the author / book signing
event’ started with a conversation between local writer Kate Kerrigan and Nora.
From the start it was clear that Kate was at least as big a fan-girl as the audience
which meant she touched on many subjects during what was more a friendly chat than an interview I would have mentioned too and all in
a relaxed, intimate feeling atmosphere.
When I booked my ticket, I saw there
would also be an opportunity to get books signed and I have to admit that I was
silently raging that the event would take place about three weeks too early for
the release of Vendetta in Death. So, imagine my delight when I
discovered that the book seller on the day also had copies of that title
available. Getting my hands on that book and getting Nora’s signature
was the crown on an already perfect day.
As for the book, Vendetta in Death is exactly what I've come to expect when I open a JD Robb book. It is always a delight to return to this cast of characters who, after 49 titles, feel more like family than made up creatures, and join the while they deal with gruesome crimes.
But, for me, these crimes (horrific as they were) came with an
extra layer in this book. It is very hard, in a time of ‘me too’ and men
getting away with sexual assault because judges don’t want to ‘destroy their
lives’, not to sympathize with a woman who decides to take matters into her own
hands and extract her own, nightmarish, form of ‘justice’ where the courts and
society at large have failed. (And no, I’m not advocating people taking the law
into their own hands, just saying that there are times when fantasizing about
it can be very satisfying).
Eve Dallas being who she is has no qualms about hunting down and
arresting our vigilante, but while doing so also takes the time to make sure
that those women for whom justice has been elusive find a path that might lead
them there. It was the perfect balance in this book and made the story that
much more realistic as well as touching for me.
For what is probably the 49th time I’m going to state
that I can’t imagine ever getting tired of these books, the characters and
their developing story lines, or the exquisite banter between Eve and the
various other regulars, especially Roarke. It is safe to say that I’m already
looking forward to book #50, even if I do have to wait until the new year for ....
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