Don L. (ProfDon) reviewed on 11/11/2009 + 38 more book reviews

This morning I finished my read of the J. D. Robb (Nora Roberts) book, Origin In Death, I picked up in a swap with another PBS member. I liked it. A rollicking good sci-fi treatment of a multiple murder mystery that eventually dredges up the old/new issue of cloning. Mary Shelly's Frankenstein is mentioned by the lead characters, Lieutenant Eve Dallas and her wealthy husband, Roarke, but not Ira Levin's Boys From Brazil, though clearly both those earlier tales figure in the genesis of this one. I was a little trepidacious about the read at first, given my familiarity with Roberts from back in my RWA days, and during the first few chapters I found my fears justified as all of the characters introduced proved to be just too-too beautiful, just too-too perfect. I was sure this would turn out to be a bit of cotton-candy fluff ala Clive Cussler and his ilk and not at all suited to my banana split tastes where escapism is concerned. But I was wrong. Roberts seems unable to leave that romance genre habit of creating characters just too wonderful for words, but she is an accomplished writer and it shows as she puts those characters into real enough situations to make them believable. She's no Thomas Harris where police procedurals are concerned, but she does a remarkable job with that part of her tale, grabbing the reader with enough detail to âmake it real'. This is the 22nd book in the Eve Dallas series so perhaps one has little room to complain about the annoying acronyms (LC, NYPSD, EDD) or jargon (Free-Agers, off-planet) that pepper the text, none of which are spelled out at any point, but presumably would be clear to anyone who'd read the earlier works. Bottom line for me...it was a darn good read and I'll be on the lookout for more.

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