Title: Creation in Death Series: In Death
Author: J.D. Robb
Read copy: eBook (Kindle)
Published: November 30, 2007
Publisher: Berkley
ASIN: B000W915UI
Eve has seen this crime scene before: the artfully arranged body of a young brunette, arms spread, palms up, body marked by the signs of prolonged and painful torture. Carved into her torso is the time it took her to die—in hours, minutes, and seconds. And on the third finger of her left hand has been placed a silver ring.
Eve is catapulted back to a case nine years earlier, when a man whom the media tagged 'The Groom' put the city on edge with a killing spree that took the lives of four women in fifteen days. Eve and her partner Feeney, her friend and mentor, couldn't stop him before he disappeared, only to resurface in other parts of the world to kill and kill again. But now The Groom seems to have come back to where he started.
When it turns out that The Groom's most recent victim was employed by Eve's billionaire husband, Roarke, she brings him onto the case. A move that proves fitting when it becomes chillingly clear that the killer has made it personal. The corpse was washed in products from a store Roarke owns and laid out on a sheet his company manufactures. With the Groom's monstrous return, Eve is determined to finish him once and for all. Familiar with his methods, she knows that he has already grabbed his next victim.
But his sights are set on the biggest challenge of his illustrious career—an abduction that will test his skills and that promises to give him satisfaction as he's never known. Time is running out on another woman's life—and for Eve.
My rating:
A ghost from the past is back...The killer they've dubbed "The Groom" nine years ago, is back in New York, and his first victim has been found just as the previous ones; her body posed, showing signs of severe torture, a silver ring on her third finger.
But there's something chillingly new in his MO this time around—a connection to Roarke. The victim worked for one of his companies, she was washed with products from a store he owns, and she was laid on a cotton sheet one of his companies manufactures. In lieu of all of it, Lieutenant Eve Dallas pulls her husband deep into the investigation...Only to discover "The Groom" has decided to make things very personal since the connection between Roarke and "The Groom"'s last intended victim is personal indeed.
Words cannot describe how much I loved and enjoyed this book. The twists and turns, the game of cat and mouse, the leads and false ends, and in the end the very personal connection the killer had chosen to make.
What made this one stand out of the more-or-less always outstanding installments in this series, was the fact Roarke was so deeply involved with the investigation from the start. It's always a pleasure reading about his help and input, but this time he was in the thick of it, right there in the war room with the rest of the task force, and the reader got to really see all the steps through his eyes.
Also, to me, this story carried a sense of urgency that wasn't as pronounced in the previous books. Time was literally running out on "The Groom"'s victims, and on the investigation itself, and the pacing, flow of the story, and even the narrative style echoed that inevitability and urgency. Everything happened in the span of maybe two days, yet the time-span seemed longer, conveying that sense of frustration, dread and fatigue everybody on such a task force must feel, until the reader feels like he/she is a part of the story, and as drained as its characters.
I loved the glimpses into the killer's sick mind, I loved the interactions between various characters, the altercation between Eve and Feeney provided that extra nugget of realism, and the story itself was engrossing, intense, and gripping.
A truly awesome story.
5 stars, bodyguard/military/merc/gov/cop/spy, favorites, Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb, sci-fi/futuristic, suspense/mystery/adventure/thriller
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