Title: Conspiracy in Death Series: In Death
Author: J.D. Robb
Read copy: eBook (Kindle)
Published: April 4, 2007
Publisher: Berkley
ASIN: B000P2A41I
In the late 21st century, on the streets of New York City, a street sleeper is found murdered, his diseased heart removed with surgical precision. His death would typically drop to the bottom of a list of senseless and inexplicable killings, but Lieutenant Dallas, who "would stand for the dead and the living," is not about to let that happen. When her research uncovers similar crimes in several cities that were dropped under mysterious circumstances, Dallas knows she's facing a killer cruel enough to prey on the weakest in society and powerful enough to conspire an extensive coverup.
To complicate matters further, Dallas faces an equally troubling threat to her career when she's linked to the death of a fellow cop. Now she must fight to restore her good name as well as track down the killer.
My rating:
Someone is killing off vagrants and used-up LCs in the seediest part of New York City, taking souvenirs in the form of sick, unusable organs, harvesting them with surgical precision. Digging deeper, Lieutenant Eve Dallas, discovers similar cases in Chicago, Paris and London, but someone doesn't want her to dig, doesn't want her to uncover the truth...
And they're prepared to do anything to stop her, even stripping her of her true self...
I'm quite disappointed with this book, to be honest. With the premise and title as they are, I expected more from this particular story.
It started off incredibly slow, progressed even slower, and only picked up pace in the last quarter, when everything was pretty much already resolved. The plot seemed bogged down with fillers and ballast, over-complicated and "over-produced", instead of whittling it all down to the basics.
I also didn't particularly care for those three brief glimpses into the main villain's mind. Either they should've been taken out or expanded beyond those few paragraphs. As they were, they simply slowed the pace and bogged the story even more.
The cast of characters was once more superb; they're old friends by now. It was nice seeing the more playful side of Roarke playing in the snow with Eve, the camaraderie between Eve, Peabody and Feeney, and the sense of family, that connection, the instantaneous belief and trust between the major players when Eve was threatened and maligned was expected and delivered nicely.
I didn't particularly like Eve's own reaction to the conflict, though. Sure, some self-pity and wallowing is expected in such circumstances, but once the initial grief was over, enough was enough. She would've continued to feel sorry for herself indefinitely, if it weren't for Roarke, and that bothered me. For such a strong, resilient, self-made person, she put too much worth on a freaking symbol.
I liked her again after Roarke kicked her (figuratively) ass and dislodged her head, and simultaneously, the story picked up pace and finally got more interesting, acquiring that necessary "friction" that was missing for the better part of it.
Still, the real motive left quite a bit to be desired, making the whole conspiracy and cover-up appear a bit over the top.
3 stars, bodyguard/military/merc/gov/cop/spy, Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb, sci-fi/futuristic, suspense/mystery/adventure/thriller
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