Devoted In Death ~ (In Death Series 41) by JD Robb

• Author: JD Robb
• Performed by Susan Ericksen
• Released: September 2015 by Brilliance Audio
• Category: Crime, Suspense, Romance
• 

Eve Dallas tracks a couple whose passion is fueled by cold brutality in this crime thriller from the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of Obsession in Death and Festive in Death.

When Lieutenant Eve Dallas examines a body in a downtown Manhattan alleyway, the victim’s injuries are so extensive that she almost misses the clue. Carved into the skin is the shape of a heart – and initials inside reading E and D….

Ella-Loo Parsens wants to go to New York City and whatever Ella-Loo wants boyfriend Darryl Roy James makes sure she gets. Even if it means murder. From Arkansas, state through state, all the way to NYC they leave a trail of devastation behind them. But Ella-Loo and Darryl have no idea they have the best of the best on their trail.

Lieutenant Eve Dallas of the NYPSD, only back from vacation the day before, has caught a brutal murder case. She and Detective Delia Peabody are at the scene. The victim, a cellist with the Metropolitan Opera company, had obviously been tortured – most probably over the course of a couple of days, as a missing persons had been filed that morning by his mother. Dorian Kuper hadn’t shown up for work two nights running, missed a class and hasn’t answered his ‘link.

She thought, fleetingly, that twenty-four hours earlier she’d been basking, mostly naked, on the sun-washed sands of her husband’s private island with Roarke, also mostly naked, beside her.

However she’d begun 2061, she was back in New York now, and so was death.

She was a murder cop, so while others slept in the blustery dark still an hour shy of dawn, she crouched over a body, hands bare but for sealant, brown eyes flat and narrowed.

As the investigation gains momentum Eve and her team discover this is not an isolated murder. They find a string of bodies across the country, leading to the present case. When a young woman is reported missing, Eve realises there is only a two or three-day time frame to find the killers before another body is added to the count.

I’ve followed this series, on audio, from the beginning and although the first book was written in the mid 90’s, the span of the whole series is around three years. Some plot lines I’ve enjoyed more than others, but what really keeps me listening are the characters and the way they have developed and are still doing so. The focus of the plot lines vary from book to book and even though this story is more of a police procedural, there’s still a degree of character development although not at the forefront as others have been. Eve continues to make progress in coming to terms with her past and is more comfortable in her relationships, with Roarke, friends and colleagues. 

Unusually, the murderers are known to the reader from the start so there’s no actual mystery, but the flashbacks to Ella-Loo and Darryl’s journey across America show their moral corruption and add to the tension as Eve and team work the investigation and pull all the clues together, hopefully in time to save the latest victims.

I love the futuristic technology aspect, which is very believable, and the inclusion of Detective William T Banner from Arkansas is a great addition. I did miss the character angle, the friends and family, side stories that make this series and keep it fresh. The interaction, friendship, banter between, and the familiarity with, the people who populate the stories. A completely mixed bag of realistic, sometimes complex and flawed, but very likeable characters who are always evolving. 

Susan Ericksen has narrated the whole of the series and does an excellent job. The performance, characterisations and accents are all perfect.

About the author

J.D. Robb writes police procedurals set in the near future.

Naked in Death is the first book in what was initially meant to be trilogy about Eve Dallas, a NY police lieutenant with a dark past. In that first book she meets the mysterious Roarke, who is a suspect in the case. By the time the third book in that initial trilogy was in stores readers clamored for more.

Twenty years later, Devoted in Death — a September 2015 release — is the 41st entry in the series. 

J.D. Robb also writes as Nora Roberts.