Thursday, January 12, 2017

Novella Review: MIDNIGHT IN DEATH, Holiday Heat

I love a good mystery and one of my favorite authors is J. D. Robb (Nora Roberts’ pen name for her In Death series). The series features Lieutenant Eve Dallas, a detective in the New York City of the near-future, and the friends and family she eases into her life as she solves the city’s toughest murder cases. The length of this series (45+ books and growing) gives us an opportunity to dive deep into Eve and Roarke, her financial magnet husband. I’ve enjoyed getting to know this cast of characters over the years, and occasionally take the time to dip back into an old favorite.

Midnight in Death is a novella set between books 7 and 8 of the series. It’s the first holiday Roarke and Eve have celebrated together as husband and wife. The plot of Midnight in Death is straightforward: David Sinclair, a serial killer Eve put away years ago, has escaped – and he has targeted everyone who took part in his downfall. Eve must work against David’s deadline to bring him down before the ball drops on New Year’s Eve.

Robb draws me in with her vivid descriptions of Eve’s emotional landscape – this steely detective used to be all about the job. Now she struggles with the strong feelings she has developed for her new husband, her trainee/partner, and the tentative connection she has begun with the motherly department psychiatrist.

The series is definitely HOT (see my Sensuality Content Ratings), and this story is no different — gritty tone, explicit violence and language, graphic sex — some readers find the series too dark. I read it for the deep, emotionally charged characters the author has created who leap off the page and stay with you long after the story is finished.  


In less than 100 pages, I can live and adventure 15 minutes into the future and sit on the edge of my seat while Eve fights to save those she's come to love (though she'll hardly ever admit it!). It’s a terrific post-holiday break.  I’ll take mine with hot chocolate, please. 

See this and other reviews on my Goodreads page.

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