In comparison to the rest of the In Death series, this one comes off as very mild. Between the Thanksgiving preparations for Roarks familys arrival from Ireland and Lt. Dallass investigation into a murder spree being perpetrated by someone Eve identifies early on, everything is fairly predictable. But I still thoroughly enjoyed it.
As far as villains go, Jerry Reinhold is pretty lame. He leaves his crime scenes with so much obvious evidence that he could have just left a note saying he did it. What made the story interesting was how long he managed to stay just a few steps ahead of Lt. Dallas and the Scooby gang.
The best part of this story that I really enjoyed are the scenes involving Roarks family, especially the football match in the front yard. The commendation ceremony was a wonderful addition too. As always, the interactions between Dallas and Peabody are a hoot, especially when it involves girly things.
Some things I missed not having in this story were major fights with Summerset, no major interactions with Mavis and Bella. No Trina either, much to my disappointment. Peabody and McNab were a lot tamer too, unfortunately.
Although many of the elements from this series were not in this story and it is much tamer than previous installments, I still really enjoyed it. I love seeing Eve and Roark evolve both as a married couple and as professional partners working cases together. Their chemistry and banter get better with each book. I would really like to see some character development with Summerset; perhaps a romance for him, even. That could be a lot of fun. I highly recommend this book and the entire series to fans of romantic suspense and police procedural thrillers. The plots and characters draw the reader into their world for a visit and make it very hard for the reader to ever want to leave.
It's always a pleasure to settle in with with Eve, Roarke, and Peabody. My only hesitation is that we spent what seemed like a lot of time in the killer's head and he's extraordinarily repugnant. It is the point, but gentle or squeamish readers should consider themselves forewarned. The Thanksgiving moment moved me to tears.
Hmmm... Like the last book, this was not written in the same style or rhythm as the earlier ones. Nora obviously provided the plot outline, but someone else filled in the words. I'm glad I read a library copy. This was not worth the hard cover price.
But setting that aside, the storyline lacked the usual suspense, as we meet the killer very early on and he is a fairly two-dimensional personality. We also spend many chapters with this guy and it was not a good trade of print ink. My main reaction is like watching the next victim heading down the stairs into the dark basement where our killer waits. Only the retired teacher got my full sympathy. Most got a sigh. And the idiot at the end was the eye-roll. Hmmm... Maybe Robb was experimenting with narrative and character types.
Up until now, we usually get at least one amusing Mavis, Summerset, Galahad, Nadine, or Down-n-Dirty moment. Instead, we get more bullpen interaction (running joke with sunshades) and a few Police Plaza developments, but not necessarily enough to compensate for the big group of missing support characters - outside of the cops in Eve's depasrtment. Even the visiting horde of Roarke's Irish relatives are a bit flat, despite some warm dialogue between Eve and Sinead and Sean. We do see many past characters, but only briefly at the end and not for long.
So it is 3 stars for the story line and -0.5 for the actual writing.
