Creation In Death

Creation in Death , the twenty-fifth book in the series, is a race against time. Through-out the book the reader is aware of the ticking of the clock, metaphorically speaking. It's a much easier read the second time since I knew the fate of the final victim already. I didn't have to spend my emotional energy worrying. Warning! This story is gruesome with some seriously graphic scenes of torture. Personally, I skip them. (I am happy to own the title wimp.)

The story in a nutshell--a whack job is abducting women. He tortures them and then kills them. When he arranges for their bodies to be found, he leaves the hours, minutes, and seconds that they lasted on their bodies. I didn't inquire to closely into how exactly he left this information--again, I have a very low tolerance for ick.

It turns out this serial killer, "The Groom" has previously killed women in New York. Nine years earlier, Feeney and Dallas worked the case as partners but were unsuccessful in stopping him. In this book, Feeney passes the leadership of the task force to Eve, when they realize The Groom has returned to New York. Although he clearly had some issues with giving up the leadership position since they have a big fight when she fails to give him a heads up about some new information that comes in on the case. Feeney acts like a jerk--Eve acts like a whipped puppy--they make up the next day.

This time around, "The Groom" changes some of his previous patterns. For starters, he uses products made by Roarke's companies. He also abducts women who work for Roarke. At first it appears he is motivated by Roarke somehow. Eventually, it becomes clear that Eve is the motivation for his actions. He intends to make Eve the apex of his serial killer career. Hah. No chance of that--apparently he's never met Eve.

There's very little time for personal story lines in this book because the team works around the clock on trying to catch this nutcake. Mavis and Treena do get pulled into the story and briefly spend time at Eve and Roarke's because it turns out only Treena's tendency to change her hair color frequently kept her from being one of The Groom's victims.

This is a tough story because the suffering of the victims is pretty terrible. The team work themselves into exhaustion trying to save the women kidnapped. The ending, however, is a big pay off. Not only is the last woman saved--but Eve turns the tables on the murderer and we have a satisfying conclusion all around. I give the story five stars out of five.