...... in Death - book review

Nora Roberts, well known for her romance novels, also writes under the pen name of J. D. Robb. All the books written by J. D. Robb are titled "[something] in Death", such as Innocence in Death, or Stranger in Death.

Carolyn and I have been reading the "...... in Death" series by Nora Roberts after we chanced upon the series by checking out one of her novels pretty much at random then checking out a couple others in the series. At this point it was clear that Roberts was actually developing her characters from book to book which would make it advisable to read the series in order. Fortunately, there is a complete list of Robb's work (her 29th book in the series is expected Feb 2009) in series order at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Death In addition to the names of the novels there is a table indicating for each book the victim(s), cause(s) of death, weapon(s), and perpetrator(s). Don't look at the table until after you read the book. That's a lot of spoiler information there.

The gist of the series is centered on the main heroine, a "tough bitch cop" by the name of Lieutenant Eve Dallas, a detective in the homicide division of the New York Security and Police Department in mid-century 2000's. By having the setting a bit in the future, Robb can use technology such as stunners instead of guns and "links" instead of phones, and off-planet prisons.

For each book in the series Dallas has at least one and sometimes 2 or 3 murders to solve. She has to use all her mental and much of her physical abilities to track down the murderers. In the way, of course, are dirty politicians, lying spouses, cops on the take, meddlesome reporters - in short all the things that today hinder police investigations. To spice up the books with just a tiny bit of sex is Eve's relationship with Roarke, the richest man in the known universe - a man so rich he doesn't need a second name. This not only adds a love interest but also gives Dallas a powerful, if slightly illegal, access to information and physical property than she is tempted to use from time to time, though she always goes back and gets the information legally.

There are just enough characters to make the books exciting without having to write down a cheat sheet to keep track of the good guys and the bad. And, I mentioned earlier, the characters develop through the series so that a bright young uniformed cop named Peabody assists Dallas in one of the earlier book and advances to Detective before you get to the later books. The murders seem plausible enough and the solutions reasonable. Dallas has more of an "attitude" than I feel comfortable with but it is balanced with some others on the NYSPD.

I wouldn't recommend a diet consisting solely of J.D. Robb novels but they're good enough reads that one or two a month would be okay.