J.D. Robb

"THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING SERIES ... The chilling new suspense novel from the author of Brotherhood in Death. After a party in New York, Lieutenant Eve Dallas rides home with her billionaire husband, Roarke, happy to be done with cocktails and small talk. After another party, not far away, a woman retires to her bedroom with her husband--and walks into a brutal nightmare. Their paths are about to collide ... When the young woman--dazed, naked, and bloody--wanders in front of their car, Roarke slams on the brakes just in time, and Eve, still in glittering gown and heels, springs into action. It's been a long night for the tired homicide cop, and it's far from over. Daphne Strazza is rushed to the ER, but it's too late for Dr. Anthony Strazza. A brilliant orthopedic surgeon, he now lies dead amid the wreckage of his obsessively organized town house, his three safes opened and emptied. Daphne would be a valuable witness, but in her terror and shock the only description of the perp she can offer is repeatedly calling him "the devil" ... While it emerges that Dr. Strazza was cold, controlling, and widely disliked--and that he treated Daphne like a trophy wife--this is one case where the evidence doesn't point to the spouse as the first suspect. So Eve and her team must get started on the legwork, interviewing everyone from dinner-party guests to professional colleagues to caterers, in a desperate race to answer some crucial questions: What does the devil look like? And where will he show up next?"--

An Eve Dallas Novel (In Death, Book 44)

Echoes in Death

J. D. Robb

New York at night. A young woman stumbles out on to a busy street - right in front of Lieutenant Eve Dallas and husband Roarke. Her name is Daphne Strazza, and she has been brutally assaulted. Confused and traumatised, she manages to tell them one thing. Her attacker wore a devil's mask. As Eve investigates this shocking case, she soon discovers a disturbing pattern. Someone is preying on wealthy couples, subjecting them to a cruel and terrifying ordeal. Worse still, the attacks are escalating in violence and depraved theatricality. Eve and her team are now in a race against time to find the man behind the mask - before he strikes again. But for Eve, this case in particular has unsettling echoes of her own troubled past...

Celeste Richardson

Full review now posted!

Or, why I love pretty much everything Nora Roberts writes under any name.

As some of you know, Nora Roberts is my comfort read. I would almost label her a guilty pleasure read because her books are so outside my norm, but I can’t feel any guilt for loving her books. Here’s why.

Anything Nora writes, whether under her own name or under the pseudonym of J.D. Robb, is a romance at its core. Is it a contemporary standalone? Definitely a romance. Is it a fantasy trilogy, where are group of friends become family and have to save the world from destruction? It might be, but it’s a love story, first and foremost. Is it a futuristic saga, detailing the life and career of a Homicide cop in the last half of the 21st century? Be that as it may, trust me when I tell you that romance is still the backbone of the story, even 44 books later. But while Nora writes romance, what makes that romance so successful is her emphasis on all relationships. The romance isn’t what draws me back to her books again and again, though I like a good romance as much as the next girl. What brings me back to Nora on such a frequent basis is her take on family. Family doesn’t end in blood, as one of my fandoms put it. Friends are just the family you choose. The relationships in her books, whether romantic or platonic, whether between mother and child or man and dog or childhood best friends or business partners turned buddies, are so well fleshed-out and realistic to me. 

Now we come to the book I’m supposed to be reviewing. Nora, as J.D. Robb, did a wonderful job with this 44th book following the life of New York murder cop Even Dallas in the year 2061. As always, the content was a bit hard to stomach because, you know, murder. But this book was especially hard for me to read, as it was an attack on happily married couples, and I happen to be half of one of those. Also, rape and sexual abuse in any form are just really hard for me to read about, as I know they are for most people. But it’s handled very well here by our protagonist. Without giving much away, Eve has a history of such abuse in her past that she still struggles with. But, throughout the almost four dozen books chronicling her life, she has grown tremendously. Where she once suppressed her memories and refused to let anyone in, now she has a tremendous support system of friends and adopted family and, of course, Roarke. She no longer bottles everything up, but has learned to share her pain and grow past it. It’s this growth that shown brightly in the midst of the dark subject matter. Nora makes the victims so real, but she also does a fantastic job showing that life is about light, and that good wins out in the end. That good might be battered and bruised by that end, but it still wins. 

I can’t rate any book in this series, or even most by Nora outside of this series, very objectively. I’m attached to the characters, to Eve and Roarke, Peabody and McNab, Mira and Mr. Mira, Mavis and Leonardo and Bella, and so many more. After 44 books, they feel like family. And I’m also attached to Nora’s writing style and her ability to craft stories where relationships are always the focus. Because relationships should be the focus of life, right?

For more of reviews, as well as my own fiction and thoughts on life, check out my blog, Celestial Musings

Lynn Braden

J. D. Robb always manages to give her readers something special, and Echoes in Death is no exception. When Eve and Roarke come across a naked woman roaming the streets, it leads them to a murdered surgeon, beginning an investigation into a series of rapes and assaults of wealthy married couples. Eve must dig deeply into the lives of these wealthy people to understand the pathology of this killer. Aspects of the case take her back to her abusive childhood making the investigation that much tougher on her. 
The killer isn't really difficult to figure out in this one, but the real twist comes at the end of the story once the killer has been identified and caught. As always, Robb's writing makes her stories entertaining to read, but her real talent lies in her ability to find the right emotional nuances in her characters that continue to make them interesting. I'll be looking forward to #45.

Nicky Morgan

Katja

Prerana agrawal

This chilling new suspense novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author J.D. Robb is the perfect entry point into the compelling In Death police procedural series featuring Lieutenant Eve Dallas. As NY Lt. Eve Dallas and her billionaire husband Roarke are driving home, a young woman-dazed, naked, and bloody-suddenly stumbles out in front of their car. Roarke slams on the brakes and Eve springs into action.Daphne Strazza is rushed to the ER, but it's too late for her husband Dr. Anthony Strazza. A brilliant orthopedic surgeon, he now lies dead amid the wreckage of his obsessively organized town house, his three safes opened and emptied. Daphne would be a valuable witness, but in her terror and shock the only description of the perp she can offer is repeatedly calling him "the devil"... While it emerges that Dr. Strazza was cold, controlling, and widely disliked, this is one case where the evidence doesn't point to the spouse. So Eve and her team must get started on the legwork, interviewing everyone from dinner-party guests to professional colleagues to caterers, in a desperate race to answer some crucial questions:What does the devil look like? And where will he show up next?

Tina Rawls

Tameka Young

Amber Walker

Nathalie Wong

danielle bush

Kristy Madders

Katie Montemayor 

After a party in New York, Lieutenant Eve Dallas rides home with her billionaire husband, Roarke, happy to be done with cocktails and small talk. After another party, not far away, a woman retires to her bedroom with her husband, and walks into a brutal nightmare. Their paths are about to collide. When the young woman--dazed, naked, and bloody--wanders in front of their car, Roarke slams on the brakes just in time, and Eve, still in glittering gown and heels, springs into action. It's been a long night for the tired homicide cop, and it's far from over.

Echoes in Death An Eve Dallas Novel (In Death, Book 44)

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