Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Eve Dallas Rocks!
A rich, well loved older man is poisoned on his birthday. The family is devastated and Eve Dallas gets the call. Eve quickly realizes who did the deed. The perpetrator is someone who has a personal vendetta against Eve herself and taunts Eve with every body that falls at her feet. Now Eve must find the murderer before they can target Roarke. Also, Eve finally confronts her tragic past. Oh, yeah the final confrontation between Eve and the murderer is worth a couple of re-reads.There are a lot of familiar things about this book. First there is Eve. She is still the tough as nails cop with a deep heart and a bruised soul that we were first introduced to in "Naked in Death." I like the progression I've seen in the books. That first book had a very isolated Eve haunted by suppressed memories of her horrific childhood. This 14th book has an Eve is completely surrounded by friends and people who love her and she (and we) finally get the whole story behind her childhood. Usually Peabody gets the best lines, but in this one Eve gets few. There are some real smile-out-loud moments when Eve is confronted with the wide-open spaces of Texas and cows and horses. And then there is everyone else. The usual suspects makes their appearance. Peabody is still at Eve's side and gets to take on a case of her own; McNab is still flashy; Charles the LC and his new girlfriend Dr. Louise are minor supporting characters and of course Roarke is still the sexiest fictional character around. I really enjoy this series and look forward to the next one in six months. These books are truly Nora Roberts at her best!
Rating: - 14th in Eve Dallas Series; Great Suspense and Entertainment
J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts) is writing this "... In Death" series at the incredible pace of two per year. The debut in 1995 opened us to a new world of NYC homicide crimes set in the year 2058. Various high tech phones, personal air travel vehicles, and human-like "droids" (worker-bees) add an imaginative touch to these police procedurals. In this the 14th of the set, homicide lieutenant Eve Dallas, along with a now familiar cast of regulars, especially her aide Peabody and her zillionaire husband Roarke, is again hard at work trying to run down a killer she sent to jail ten years ago, Julianna Dunne. Out of prison on parole, this time Dunne's hitting random male targets instead of just marrying rich men before she offs them. Eve suspects a personal competition with Dunne, and fears Roarke might be on the hit list with little more than one-upsmanship (with a little revenge thrown in) as a motive. The intensity of the hunt, the interaction of Eve and her cohorts, and the climactic conclusion left us feeling wrung-out from suspense.While these books take on a predictable form, Robb's plots never fail to please. Moreover, we get to know the lead players better with every book, and take some degree of pleasure in their growth and development. (Peabody solves her first murder in this one, to the delight of all, in a small sub-plot.) The relationship studies between Eve and Roarke pose many questions about the solidarity of marriage and the care and feeding of one's partner; the troubled childhoods of our protagonists only add to the complexity of their pursuit of happiness. So add it up -- edgy, compelling stories; torrid romance and relationships; futuristic settings; and intense crime fighting: sounds like a great mystery book!
Rating: - Starts Slow, But Leaves You Breathless
I am in constant awe of Nora Roberts (writing here as J.D. Robb). How does she churn out book after book of such quality when others in the genre eventually sink into repetitive junk? Whatever it is, it's worked again: "Reunion in Death," although deceptively slow for the first half of the book, picks up in the middle and holds the pace until the very last word.This time, futuristic super-cop Eve Dallas faces serial killer Julianna Dunne, whose recent time in the slammer has done nothing to help her personality. She is out for payback against the one person in the world she respects (and loathes): Eve. And the payback involves the murderous Julianna playing hardball on Eve's New York City turf...stalking Eve's man, the gorgeous and brilliant Roarke. As in the last few books, Eve's vulnerabilities are allowed to show--at least to Roarke and the reader. I found this to be the only boring (to me) part of the book. I think that Eve's horrible childhood has been well explored by now, and it's getting a bit repetitive to relive Eve's nightmares in every book. Even though she supposedly has new revelations about her past in this book, I found nothing really new in this particular set of Eve's flashback horrors, which is not to say that I am bored with Eve herself (a fabulous character), or that I do not sympathize with her fight against her personal demons. But...been there, done that. Nora/Robb needs to come at this from another perspective if she feels there is more to reveal; otherwise, I, for one, have had enough. Same goes for the endlessly fascinating, but now also repetitive, relationship between Eve and Roarke. It's now established that they each have their personal weaknesses, and that their considerable strengths complement their spectacular (in every way) relationship. It's not that their erotic pas de deux no longer interests me as a reader, but I feel that Nora/Robb is again covering old ground. On the other hand, maybe she is setting us up for a surprise? One never knows with her! OK, back to the plot. Julianna Dunne is a brilliant adversary, and she has done her homework well. But she has picked the most formidable opponent on or off-planet... And so can her wonderful team: Peabody (who solves her first case on her own!), the ever-randy MacNab, the elegant psychologist/profiler Dr. Mira, hardbitten and loyal Feeney, and all the rest of the crew. But now Julianna has aimed at Eve's Achilles Heel: her love for Roarke. What better way to destroy Eve than to destroy her man? The eventual standoff between Eve and Julianna is sort of like the Clash of the Titans, and no less exciting. Who wins? Do you have to ask? Another winner from Nora; another treat for her legion of readers. Where's the next one?
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