Indulgence in Death

The latest installment in J.D. Robb’s (aka Nora Roberts) In Death series starts out in Ireland, with Eve Dallas and Roarke on vacation, visiting Roarke’s mother’s family.  Of course, death never takes a break, and Dallas soon stumbles over a body.  But as the entire book isn’t set in Ireland, this murder is an open and shut case and it isn’t until the happy couple return to New York that the meat of the story takes off.

 

While Ireland was a nice interlude, it started the book off very slowly for me.  I would much rather have been thrown in to the “real” murder mystery right from chapter one.  Because it is only when Eve sinks her teeth into the murder of a limo driver does the book finally take off and become the usual page-turner Robb/Roberts is known for.

 

That being said, I still had issues with the book.  I like the In Death books, in great part due to the continuing story of Eve and Roarke and their circle of friends.  But lately, their relationship has stagnated.  They’ve settled into the happy married couple rut you know your beloved romance novel couples do, but you just don’t particularly want to read about it.  I miss the emotional angst of the turbulent early days of their relationship and marriage and having them both deal with the skeletons in each others’ past.  Perhaps Robb/Roberts has mined that part of the story for all she can.  What’s left is mediocre mystery, where the bad guy(s) stand out like sore thumbs because there’re only a handful of characters in each book and most of them are recurring.  Once again, in Indulgence in Death, we learn who done it before we’re halfway through the book and it’s just a matter of how Eve proves it.  I don’t generally like mysteries that read this way.  I’m more of an Agatha Christie fan who loves to read a book peppered with possible suspects and so many red herrings I end up smacking my head at the end, wondering why I didn’t see it, ‘cause once Dame Agatha explains all, you feel pretty silly for missing her clues.  I guess when I read, I want to think, not be instantly gratified with the solution presented before the problem is even read about.

 

But to give Robb/Roberts her due, Indulgence in Death is still one of her better installments to the series of late and although I knew who done it, the fast pace of the story kept me turning pages till the end.

 

Till next time, happy reading.

L J