Review: Indulgence in Death

Indulgence in Death
J. D. Robb
Futuristic Romantic Suspense
In Death/Book 31 (plus 7 novellas)
Putnam/November 2010

*Potential Spoilers for Previous Books*

From the inside cover ~

First it was a limo driver shot through the neck with a crossbow. Then it was a high-priced escort found stabbed through the heart with a bayonet.

Random hits, thrill kills, murderers with a taste for the finer things in life-and death-are making NYPSD Lieutenant Eve Dallas angry. And an angry Eve can be just as an efficient and dangerous predator as the killer.

As time runs out on another innocent victim's life, Eve's investigation will take her into the rarefied circle that her husband, Roarke, travels in-and into the perverted heart of madness...

After thirty-eight stories about Eve and Roarke, Peabody and McNab, Feeney and all the rest of the gang you would think this series would slow down, become boring or just feel like the same story rehashed over and over. There have been some books I liked better than others but the overall feel of the series has stayed constant. The characters continue to develop and progress in their relationships with Eve making the greatest internal changes.

The story starts with Eve and Roarke on holiday, visiting Roarke's family in Ireland. Eve can't seem to get away from dead bodies, she finds one in Ireland. It seems Ireland is full of surprises. The relationship with Roarke's family continues to surprise Eve, both with their easy acceptance of her and her comfort around them. I enjoy seeing this side of Eve, her ability to adjust to situations where Dallas the cop may feel out of place but Eve the wife is learning to fit in.

The holiday ends and it's back to the city Eve loves. It doesn't take long before she's caught a case, an unusual one. Man dead by crossbow. Not something you expect to see in the city. It turns out Dallas and Peabody will get even more unusual murders before they put a stop to it. I've come to realize that I like the books when we don't know who the killer or killers are. I like the investigative aspects and when we find out early on who did it, that seems to lessen the importance of the investigation and by degrees, my enjoyment of the story. I'd much rather be surprised by the identity of the murder. Or at the least, figure it out but still have the tiniest smidgen of doubt until the last minute when Eve does her big reveal. Indulgence in Death didn't work that way and I think that's what made this a slower read for me. Since we find out early on who Eve will be "locking up in a cage" as she puts it, I had a hard time drumming up that urgency to get to the end and find out who did it. I already knew!

So the investigation didn't wow me but I did like the relationships in this one. Eve is once again learning all about friendships and how they need that give and take to make them work. She is learning to give more of herself to her friends. You certainly get that Eve was not used to giving much of herself outside of her work until Roarke and then Peabody came into her life. She had Mavis and that was pretty much it. Feeney to a lesser extent but he was part of the job. This time we see some of Morris and Eve's camaraderie of not only the job but also the mutual respect and friendship. They remind me of a close brother and sister relationship. They kid around, tease each other a bit but underneath it all there's that deep concern and love.

Speaking of love, I do love Roarke. He's got everything a hero should have but... you'd almost think he didn't have a job. LOL Once again Roarke is able to set aside his bid for world domination to help Eve work her case. This can get to me at times. Roarke gets too involved in the cases, spending far too much time working on them when he is this inter-planetary billionaire with so much work of his own. I find I have to bend reality a little to make his involvement plausible.

While not a favorite, still a worthwhile read. Wish it had had the big reveal but Indulgence did give me moments of truly laugh out loud, shake my head, enjoyment. These characters have cemented themselves into my reading life and I never want to give them up.

Rating: B