JD Robb: In Death Series - Nora Roberts

...but they're written by JD Robb who is a pseudonym of Nora Roberts and they're about a female cop, so into the romance/suspense genre they go by default, although admittedly relationships (not necessarily romantic) play an integral part in all the books.

The books are set in an almost believable near futuristic American setting, about 50 years in the future, I say almost believable because I think that the books would be better set ...
...here as Nora Roberts and JD Robb have a book coming out called 'Remember When' which is part contemporary mystery and part futuristic with Eve solving an old crime. That should be interesting, but I wonder how they'll split the royalties. :-)

Thanks for taking the time to read, I tried to limit what I was saying but it still got too long, so I didn't go into too much detail on the individual books, hopefully just enough to give you ... more

I remember the first 'In Death' book I picked up, purely by chance as I was browsing my local WHSMiths, I'd never heard of the author but the cover caught my eye, it was of a woman staring out over a city, very stylish in a film noir sort of way, it reminded me of Blade Runner for some reason. I decided to try it after reading the back cover and from that point on I've been hooked, it wasn't even the first book in the series so I went back and got the others - special order because at that time they weren't that readily available. Unfortunately they've changed the covers since then to something more picturesque.

The series is classed as romantic suspense although I think that that's a lot to do with who the author is rather than what the books are about, although the first three books fit more readily into that genre. To my mind the series is more of a police procedural / crime along the lines of Dell Shannon or Ed McBain, but they're written by JD Robb who is a pseudonym of Nora Roberts and they're about a female cop, so into the romance/suspense genre they go by default, although admittedly relationships (not necessarily romantic) play an integral part in all the books.

The books are set in an almost believable near futuristic American setting, about 50 years in the future, I say almost believable because I think that the books would be better set about 100 years in the future to be truly believable. The society created is slightly Orwellian, post Urban Wars all computers have to be registered and can be monitored, medical advances have cured cancer and extended life well past 100 with body treatments to keep you looking good, smokers must take an anti-cancer vaccine every year and prostitution is legalised and regulated. Travel times between cities and continents have been drastically reduced so that having dinner on another coast is an option. New worlds and space stations have been opened up and are the playgrounds of the jet set rich. Still despite all the advances mankind hasn't changed much there's still a disenfranchised underbelly to society, the poor are really poor in comparison, the rich are obscenely rich and murder still happens for all the usual reasons, hatred, fear, lust, revenge, greed etc.

That's when Eve Dallas steps in, she's a police lieutenant in the Homicide division. Eve is a completely believable character, she's the product of an abusive childhood with no memory of her past or even her name, taken into the social care system and eventually becoming a cop with an inherent sense of justice. She's driven, strong, savvy and sarcastic but she always gets her man and gets revenge for the victims. Eve's whole being is focused on the job, but gradually through the series she is forced to reconsider her attitudes and become more oriented towards the people surrounding her. Robb has set up a coterie of readily believable characters surrounding Dallas, her co-workers, friend and husband, and the interactions and dialogue between them sparkles with humour. In each subsequent book the characters become a little more fleshed out and 'real' as we learn more about them. The interactions between Eve and Summerset, her husband's butler, and Eve and Peabody, her aide, are probably the funniest in the books. Both Eve and the man who becomes her husband (Roarke, now just about the richest man on the planet, but with a checkered criminal past as he grew up on the streets with a thug for a father) are haunted by their childhoods. Gradually (over several books) Eve remembers and becomes reconciled to bits of her past through her nightmares and we learn more about Roarke's past, as it rears it's ugly head in the more recent books. Strong secondary stories of ongoing relationships (sexual / friendships/ maternal / paternal) run through the books next to the main story of the police investigation.

There are 17 books now, the latest 'Imitation in Death' was recently published in the States along with a couple of short stories in romance anthologies (Silent Night with the story Midnight in Death and Out of This World with the story Interlude in Death) which are in order :

****Naked in Death****
The first book in the series. We meet Eve as she investigates the murder of a well connected call girl the first of a series of prostitutes shot with an old fashioned revolver. While investigating gun collectors she meets Roarke who becomes her prime suspect in the murders. She's attracted to him, he's rich and has a murky past (although no one could ever prove it), and gets political heat as she trys to clear his name. The things she learns about the victim trigger a series of flashbacks to her childhood through nightmares.

****Glory in Death****
Eve's new lover Roarke can't stay out of her investigations, he's linked to two murders again, successful women are being killed, and they're women he was once involved with. The families aren't happy with the investigations and Eve's forced to investigate Roarke again.

****Immortal in Death****
A professional model and maneater is killed after arguing with Eve's best friend over a man. Mavis was drunk and can't account for her whereabouts so Eve has to piece it together and find the real killer while still trying to prepare for her wedding. Everything leads to a drugs connection with a drug that would be fatal to all its users and the dealer is trying to cover his tracks with a series of murders.

****Rapture in Death****
A young man's suicide interupts Eve's honeymoon. When she gets back a series of high profile suicides makes Eve suspicious, none of the victims had problems and they all had a strange smile on their face and the autopsies show a strange burn on the brain. The only link is to VR machines made by one of her husband's companies. Can someone be subliminally programming death into the machines.

****Ceremony in Death****
Eve's asked to investigate a dead cop for Internal Affairs, his granddaughter's frightened and people are turning up ritually murdered. Led to a group of Satanists on one hand and Wiccans on the other the investigation takes a personal turn when a body turns up on her doorstep and she has to take the investigation into underground clubs.

****Vengeance in Death****
A killer's sending riddles to the police, just too late to stop the murders. Roarke's murky past takes centre stage as people he once knew in his criminal youth are brutally murdered and someone's trying to frame Summerset, the question is whether Eve can save his life without turning him in for his past crimes. This book takes us to Ireland to explore a little of Roarke's past and motivations.

****Holiday in Death****
It's Christmas time and a serial killer's using a dating agency to choose his victims, he's taunting the police, his disguise is perfect - he looks like Santa carrying a present. Eve has to send her aide Peabody undercover and risk her life to catch him.

****Conspiracy in Death****
The low point of Eve's career, while investigating the murder of a homeless person she has words with a beat cop with an attititude. The death is one of a series that leads to Eve investigating a group of prominant doctors. When the beat cop is brutally murdered her investigation is derailed when she is suspended and accused herself. There's a lot of emotional content here, the plot's clever and the effect of her suspension and perhaps the end of her career on Eve is electrifying.

****Loyalty in Death****
The dark days of the Urban Wars are brought to light when Eve receives a series of letters that indicate terrorist action, with herself and her husband targeted she has to stop the bombings before even more people die. Just to confuse the issue they try to involve Peabody's brother in a murder case to muddy the waters.

****Witness in Death****
Even going to watch a play proves dangerous for Eve when someone substitutes the knife used at the end for a real one. The victim turns out to be a well hated user who deserved what he got, and with so many suspects to choose from the investigation takes some surprising turns.
Warning :This book deals with incest a little.

****Judgment in Death****
Dirty Cops are being killed, only one of them was a good cop undercover. With Internal Affairs getting in the way, everything leads to another cop being the killer. And Eve is set up as a target herself. There's a lot of pathos in this book, most of the time the killers aren't sympathetic characters but this one is.

****Betrayal in Death****
One of Roarke's employees is brutally murdered , while investigating the crime Eve links it to a series of murders by a wanted hitman and is worried he may be the ultimate target. The FBI become involved and they want to try to pin something on Roarke, meanwhile an old associate of his turns up from the dead. Plotwise this is a very complicated book, everythings interconnected but it's difficult to see where until the final chapters.

****Seduction in Death****
This book highlights the dangers of internet dating, Dante knows how to seduce a woman and get into her heart, especially if you give her drugs to release her inhibitions. The first death's an accident due to too much drugs and alcohol. It started as a game - points for dangerous seductions - but death upped the stakes..and was too much fun to stop in a game of one-upmanship. Eve has to catch Dante before he kills again.

****Reunion in Death****
A killer Eve put away is now free and killing again in revenge, each murder putting her closer to Roarke.

****Purity in Death****
The death toll rises in the heat. Eve is called to the scene when a cop kills a killer who just went crazy. Soon more follow. The only link apart from their behaviour and criminality is their computers, somehow a computer virus is causing their brains to explode.

****Portrait in Death****
Another serial killer is stalking the city, this one's an artist, he's stalked and photographed his victims in life and death wanting to preserve their 'light' forever.

****Imitation in Death****
Eve investigates a series of killings where the murderer is imitating past serial killers. She's starting to get flashbacks about her mother and her aide Peabody is coming up for her detective's exam. Several potential killers and they're all rich and well connected.

All of the books are good, although a couple stand out as being stronger (Conspiracy especially because of the strong story line and emotional content). Each stands alone although I would recommend reading from the beginning as there are events and occurrences referred to in later books that you only understand from the earlier ones and you get a better feel for the relationships as you watch them develop from the beginning. The futuristic setting allows the author to get away with plots that wouldn't work in a contemporary setting.

It'll be interesting to see where the story goes from here as Nora Roberts and JD Robb have a book coming out called 'Remember When' which is part contemporary mystery and part futuristic with Eve solving an old crime. That should be interesting, but I wonder how they'll split the royalties. :-)

Thanks for taking the time to read, I tried to limit what I was saying but it still got too long, so I didn't go into too much detail on the individual books, hopefully just enough to give you an idea of what each is about without spoiling the plot. All the books should be readily available on the high street or internet. 

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