Strangers In Death by J.D. Robb

The JD Robb books are a total contrast from my usual reading - they're more like the CSI and Law & Order shows I enjoy on TV. I've tried other suspense and procedural books and found them boring, but the combination of the unique characters of Eve and Roarke and the well-crafted mysteries have kept me happy, at least until recently.

Strangers In Death by JD Robb
(2008, Futuristic Suspense) 3/8/08
Grade: 3

When Tommy Anders is killed, it appears to be a sexual scenario gone wrong, but Eve Dallas doesn’t quite buy it. As she (and Roarke) begin to pull apart the details, the tearful widow doesn’t look quite as innocent as she first appeared...

Not the best installment in the series. Many of the Death books have a strong feeling for the victim and that gives the crime momentum and passion, but in this one, it just felt kind of blah. The murder was solved by the halfway point of the book, and from that point, it was just a question of figuring out the details. (Although the Strangers on a Train scenario was clever.) The whole thing just felt a bit routine. And there wasn’t much that was new or exciting in the Eve-Roarke interactions, either. As always, the author paints vivid characters - I especially liked the German housekeeper, the ex-Mafia daughter suspect and the good-mom stripper - but, as cold and calculating as Ava was, she didn’t give the book a lot of pop. The Robb books are usually worth reading, but I often felt I was slogging through this one, especially in the second half.


Although I have enjoyed the JD Robb books from the beginning, the last few books have been more and more "blah" to me. The last two I really liked were Origin in Death (from 2005) and Visions in Death (from 2004). I hate to give these up, since the police procedurals are a nice break from my usual reading, I really like Eve and Roarke, and I keep hoping for another great one, but I'm getting a bit blah-d out.