RogerBW's Blog

2017 SF/mystery; fifty-fifth (roughly) of J. D. Robb's In Death series. (Or 44th novel, I think. At some point I may renumber these reviews.) On the road on a snowy night, Homicide Lieutenant Eve Dallas and her billionaire husband Roarke find a naked, blood-stained and delirious woman who claims to have been attacked by the Devil.

This is more of a police procedural than the last few books have been: there's lots of police work done on the first crime, then more on later ones, and while there's not much in the way of blatant physical clues it soon becomes pretty clear roughly what the villain's psychology must be. From that, and interrogation of people who might have been in the right places, the investigation (and while it's led by Dallas it's clearly a team effort) is able to close in.

There are callbacks to Eve's childhood, which seem a little forced at times, but we also get more of the Homicide team, and it's good to see these people starting to get their own narratives even if they're often somewhat simplistic. With such a huge cast some of them inevitably get sidelined, but I admit I'd like to see something of the Peabody/McNab relationship again.

I'm still finding enjoyment in this series, while accepting that they are in no way Great Literature or even particularly worth re-reading. Followed by Secrets in Death.