Tuesday 27 August 2019

Vendetta in Death (In Death #49) by J.D. Robb




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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