10. “Origin in death” by Nora Roberts (writing as J.D. Robb)

Publisher: Penguin, 2005
Page count: 347 pages

“Origin in death” is the twenty-second book in the crime/romance series about Lt. Eve Dallas. In this instalment, Eve and her trusty aide, Detective Peabody, investigate the death of a famous surgeon and philantropist, Dr. Wilfred Icove. When his son is later found killed in the same manner, Eve begins to suspect that there is more to this family than their perfect facade would suggest… Meanwhile, on the home front, Rourke is more nervous than we have ever seen him before, as he has invited dozens of Irish relatives over to New York for Thanksgiving.

The “in death”-series is a guilty secret of mine: they are predictable, formulaic, fluffy books with little to no substance… And yet I absolutely love them! Despite their predictability, or perhaps because of it, I find them strangely satisfying to read and far more addictive than the recycled plots would seem to suggest. Thus, I think of them as the litterary equivalent of comfort food, and indeed I find myself reaching for a new instalment every time I require some mental downtime in much the same way you might eat ice cream in front of your favourite chic flick.

That said, formulaic books seldom make for interesting reviews, and hence I don’t usually bother with writing them up. However, I wanted to make an exception for “Origin in death” because it has a genuinely decent storyline. Moreover, the author uses its futuristic setting (2059 A.D) to explore the ethical dilemmas of human cloning, thereby giving the book far more substance than usual. As a result, there is somewhat less emphasis on the relationship between Eve and Roarke than usual; however, I can reassure faithful readers of the series that the kick-ass finale more than makes up for this potential shortcoming. Overall, therefore, “Origin in death” is one of my absolute favourites so far in the “in death”-series.

18. “Immortal in death” by Nora Roberts (writing as J.D. Robb)

Publisher: Piatkus Books, 2010 (first published in 1996)
Page count: 432 pages

“Immortal in death” is the third installation in the “In death”-series about Lt. Eve Dallas. Spoiler alert! In this book Eve is preparing her for forthcoming wedding to Roarke. While this should be a happy event, Eve has very conflicting emotions because she feels that she is damaged goods after suffering years of physical and sexual abuse by her father. Eve suppressed her traumatic background for years; indeed, she had complete memory loss of her childhood, and the name Eve Dallas was given to her by the child protection services who found her abandoned in a ditch in Dallas when she was 8. But after meeting Roarke and allowing herself to feel love and intimacy for the first time in her life, Eve is terrorised by nightmares of her father’s brutality and incest.

Adding to this stress, Eve’s best friend Mavis is discovered, covered in blood, next to the body of Pandora, a celebrity model. Mavis and Pandora had been fighting in public over Leonardo, an up-and-coming, destitute designer who needed Pandora to attract attention to his next clothes collection but no longer wanted to date her as he had fallen in love wih Mavis, and so it is now up to Eve to clear her friend of the murder charges.

This is yet another great book about Eve and Roarke, though having read three of the “In death”-books in a row one can’t help but detect a certain element of formulaic plot devises and repetitive descriptions. That said, “Immortal in death” is very interesting because we learn a lot more about Eve’s troubled past, and it is great that Nora Roberts lets her protagonists marry so early in the series rather than drawing it out interminably like Janet Evanovich’s books about Stephanie Plum.

17. “Glory in death” by Nora Roberts (writing as J.D. Robb)

Publisher: Piatkus Books, 2010 (first published in 1995)
Page count: 416 pages

“Glory in death” is the second book about Lt. Eve Dallas in the “In death”-series. In this book three women brutally have their throats slashed by an unknown assailant. The first two victims were both public personas (one was a high-profile prosecutor and the other an actress) but are otherwise unrelated in every way. The third was a public nobody, an editor at a local tv station, but Eve suspects that the victim was mistaken for Nadine Furst, the star reporter at the same tv station. Eve therefore decides to draw the murderer out by using herself as bait, an easy thing to do given the publicity around her romance with Roarke and the notoriety she gained from the case in “Naked in death”. The case is complicated further when her boss, Whitney, tries to interfere in Eve’s investigation because he was a close friend of the slain prosecutor. But is Eve prepared to suffer the consequences when the murderer takes the bait? And how is the relationship to Roarke affected when Eve once again has to drag him into one of her investigations as a potential suspect?

This book is as brilliant as the first one. The crime and suspense are great here too, but more interesting is it to follow the relationship between Eve and Roarke as it hits its first inevitable bumpy patches when Eve’s personal life is once again impacted by her career.

16. “Naked in death” by Nora Roberts (writing as J.D.Robb)

Publisher: Piatkus Books, 2010 (originally published in 1995)
Page count: 400 pages

“Naked in death” is the first book in the long series of crime novels about police lieutenant Eve Dallas. It is set in 2058 in a typical science fiction society: police officers are equipped with Star Trek-like lasers, AutoChefs cook the food, computers are voice operated, space voyage and domestic droids are commonplace, and guns were long since banned as they were considered barbaric. Despite this, the working life of Lt. Dallas is remarkably similar to that of today’s police detectives; human murders are still motivated by the same age-old motives of money, sex, jealousy and greed.

In this book, the luxury prostitute grand-daughter of a powerful US senator is discovered in bed shot through the head, heart and pubic area with an old-fashioned gun. A note at the scene of the crime suggests this is the first of six murders to come, and the murderer taunts the police to catch him by sending a video of the misdeed. The political delicacy of the case means Eve Dallas is asked to investigate the matter quickly and discreetly without relying on the police resources normally associated with a murder. Only Feeney, a police captain and computer wiz, is allocated to help her resolve the case.

Over the course of the investigation Eve repeatedly comes across Roarke, a stupendously rich and good-looking Irishman with a sketchy past. Roarke quickly becomes a primary suspect in Eve’s case because he owns a huge antique gun collection, had master access to the victim’s flat (as he owns the building), and was purportedly dating the victim in the days prior to her death. The only problem is, Roarke and Eve also hit it off fabulously and begin dating. With Roarke unaccounted for at the time of the next two murders, Eve’s personal life begins to interfere with her job…

While I enjoy science fiction on tv and in the cinema, I have never been a big fan of sci-fi litterature. However, in this series Norah Roberts hits just the right balance so that the sci-fi never becomes unrealistic or takes away the focus from the crime or the romance between Eve and Roarke. Instead, the author turns the futuristic setting into an asset by making it a source for humour and romantic interludes, such as when Roarke introduces Eve to real coffee for the first time (AutoChefs only cook synthetic food…). I absolutely loved the combination of crime, romance and sci-fi in this book, and I can’t wait to read the next volume in the series!