Sunday 23 December 2007

Innocent in Death by J D Robb

A few years ago I read the first 10 of this series but decided to give it up when the secondary characters seemed to start taking over the novels. I decided to read this one because, according to the blurb, Eve gets jealous of an old flame of Roarke's. That sounded a bit interesting.

Strictly speaking. Not a romance at all. The author has cut down on the emotional hotness. But I'm just so grateful the main couple are still intact. They haven't cheated on one another, nor are they semi-alcoholic nor do they do drugs. Nor have their economic circumstances reversed or even changed. Thank goodness. Seriously. I was totally traumatized by what Ed McBain did to the central characters from his 99th precinct series. Not a pleasant experience to read novel after novel where the author so obviously hates the people he is writing about and puts them through unnecessary hell because of it.

I wasn't really that interested in the murder plot. Boring old teachers die. But the jealousy aspect was quite amusing. imo The author handled it very well. Because it could so easily have soured the whole marriage for the next few novels. Eve should get down on her hands and knees to thank Mavis for saving her relationship with Roarke. I loved the fact that Eve had no compunction about calling Magdelana a slut, completely without any supporting evidence, from the very beginning. Only when Roarke told Eve that Maggie was in the habit of sleeping with their marks as part of their con did I definitely know that the happy ending would be convincing. And that's at least two-thirds into the book. Naughty ol' Roarke for not letting Eve know that important fact from the very beginning. And could he really not tell that Maggie had in fact chosen him as her next mark? Clever ol' author for keeping the reader in the dark too.

This is another novel where children feature heavily. But my own emotions were left completely undisturbed. A fairly entertaining read. But too mainstream and vanilla to feature on my recommended list.

My favorite is Vengeance btw. Roarke was a lot less respectable and the murder plot was again based around the theme of trust in (a new) marriage.

....and then there was the one where Roarke and Eve were basically brainwashed into having hot sex all over the novel. Very entertaining.

...favorite single scene was when Eve n Roarke visited suburbia. Absolutely loved that. (that was in the novel where Eve got kicked off the force for some reason or other...temporarily I should add.)

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