Monday, February 8, 2021

Review: Faithless in Death by J.D. Robb

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Title: Faithless in Death
Series: In Death
Author: J.D. Robb
Read copy: eBook (Kindle)
Published: February 9, 2021
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ASIN: B086ZXF6MR

The scene in the West Village studio appears to be classic crime-of-passion: two wine glasses by the bed, music playing, and a young sculptor named Ariel Byrd with the back of her head bashed in. But when Dallas tracks down the wealthy Upper East Side woman who called 911, the details don't add up. Gwen Huffman is wealthy, elegant, comforted by her handsome fiancé as she sheds tears over the trauma of finding the body—but why did it take an hour to report it? And why is she lying about little things?

As Eve and her team look into Gwen, her past, and the people around her, they find that the lies are about more than murder. As with sculpture, they need to chip away at the layers of deception to find the shape within—and soon they're getting the FBI involved in a case that involves a sinister, fanatical group and a stunning criminal conspiracy.

My rating:

It looks like your run-of-the-mill murder of passion; two glasses by the just-had-sex-in bed, the woman's head is bashed in...But as Eve pokes deeper, she hits a big-ass can of worms in the shape of a eugenics-loving, segregationist, homophobic, chauvinistic "religious" cult...And a possible plot for Nadine Furst's next book.


I love it when your regular-looking murder starts an avalanche. And that's just what happens in this new installment in the In Death series. The plot isn't overly generous with dead bodies (only two, if I counted correctly), but that doesn't mean it's boring or that the procedural is dull. It's the "ambient noise" that drives the investigation, the plot and the characters forward. And what starts as a hum ends up in a cacophony of sounds as all the pieces fall together and Eve displays tactical prowess that would make any general proud.

The theme once more hits close to home for Eve and stirs the "angry juices" of even the most jaded reader. Because it might be fiction, but real life could be very close behind.


Chilling, engrossing...a page-turner.

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