Concealed in Death is the forty-eighth story of J. D. Robb's In
Death series, and a huge improvement on its immediate predecessor
Thankless in Death. It drops many of the science-fictional trappings
of the setting to deliver a powerful and well-told story.
Indeed, apart from some very minor details, there's nothing
happening here which couldn't be placed into a contemporary-set story
about abused and runaway children. Not that that's necessarily a bad
thing; the world-building in this series has often been a bit on the
shaky side. The solution to the central puzzle, of who killed twelve
young girls fifteen years ago and walled up their bodies in an
abandoned building, is never seriously in doubt; but at least this
time we don't get a killer's-eye view.
A few of the long-term characters get some interesting moments, but
there's less effort to squeeze in lots of them than there was in
Thankless in Death; in particular there's a sequence involving the
shady past of protagonist Eve Dallas' long-term friend Mavis which,
while not contradicting what we've learned about her before, puts it
in a somewhat different light.
There's also a new character brought in who seems likely to recur, a
forensic anthropologist with whom Dallas butts heads in a minor way.
She seems to be competent at her job, and it's pleasant to see Dallas
not automatically making a friend-for-life or an enemy-for-life:
there's no particular reason for Dallas to dislike her, but they still
have to work together, and their relationship is left unresolved for
now.
The events of Origin in Death and Celebrity in Death are still
resonating; Dallas has a reputation as a good cop among people who've
seen the popular film made about one of her higher-profile cases.
Overall a great improvement on Thankless in Death, and I'm glad to
see that Robb hasn't lost her spark.
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