Author: J.D. Robb
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Publication Date: February 2019
Genre: Urban Fantasy / Mystery
Buy The Book: Amazon | BN | Audible
Description: In this gritty and gripping new novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling series, Eve Dallas fights to save the innocent—and serve justice to the guilty—on the streets of New York.
Homicide cop Eve Dallas and her billionaire husband, Roarke, are building a brand-new school and youth shelter. They know that the hard life can lead kids toward dangerous crossroads—and with this new project, they hope to nudge a few more of them onto the right path. For expert help, they hire child psychologist Dr. Rochelle Pickering—whose own brother pulled himself out of a spiral of addiction and crime with Rochelle’s support.
Lyle is living with Rochelle while he gets his life together, and he’s thrilled to hear about his sister’s new job offer. But within hours, triumph is followed by tragedy. Returning from a celebratory dinner with her boyfriend, she finds Lyle dead with a syringe in his lap, and Eve’s investigation confirms that this wasn’t just another OD. After all his work to get clean, Lyle’s been pumped full of poison—and a neighbor with a peephole reports seeing a scruffy, pink-haired girl fleeing the scene.
Now Eve and Roarke must venture into the gang territory where Lyle used to run, and the ugly underground world of tattoo parlors and strip joints where everyone has taken a wrong turn somewhere. They both believe in giving people a second chance. Maybe even a third or fourth. But as far as they’re concerned, whoever gave the order on Lyle Pickering’s murder has run out of chances…
My Thoughts: One of the things that make Eve and Roarke such interesting and intriguing characters is how they have pulled themselves out of a life of violence, despair and ultimate misery and made something of themselves, individually and as a couple. Yes, Roarke is the richest man in the universe who buys and sells planets like they are baseball trading cards, but at his heart, he is a humanitarian who happily uses his wealth, power and influence to make life a little better for those who society discards and writes off.
Roarke has taken on the building of a school and youth shelter, which he hopes will help the children in the area make better choices to help them on the path to success. He hires child psychologist Rochelle Pickering because she knows better than anyone what a life of addiction and crime can do. Her brother, Lyle, lived that life until she helped him overcome it and with her help he has found his way back to sobriety and stability.
Unfortunately, Lyle’s success is short-lived when Rochelle comes home to find him dead with a syringe, an apparent overdose, another statistic. Eve doesn’t see it that way and quickly determines that Lyle’s death has been staged to appear as an overdose but she knows he was murdered. Eve knows that Lyle’s former gang is involved but tracking down who gave the order is a little more difficult and not so obvious. This story had a lot of unexpected twists and turns, several villains and agendas. A lot more than meets the eye, but Eve does not let that slow her down. In fact, I think it motivates her more to solve it.
My Final Verdict: With forty-eight installments in this series and more to come, what surprises me about this series is how thorough and meticulous Eve continues to be. I love how her brain works, organized and compartmentalized. She remembers the most trivial and smallest of details. I’m starting to wonder if she’s actually human or droid. More surprising is that she can solve the most intricate and twisted of murder cases, but she has been unable to figure out who the candy thief in her office is. Or, maybe she has…stay tuned…
No comments:
Post a Comment