Divided In Death

Divided In Death; Eve Dallas and team investigate the murder of Caro's son-in-law and his mistress. Chief suspect? Caro's daughter Reva. (That name bothered me the whole book. I was either thinking of Reva Lewis from Guiding Light or Reva the deaf diplomatic negotiator from Star Trek: The Next Generation.) Caro is Roarke's faithful executive assistant for those not in the know about Dallas-world. Oh yeah, Reva also works for Roarke. Could there be any MORE inappropriate connections here? And yet, Eve will be the primary investigator and will utilize Roarke as a civilian expert.

What seems to be a simple crime of passion quickly evolves into more as we learn that the whole double murder is a frame up. The victims, it turns out, were employees of the future Department of Homeland Security. Now we're up to our neck in spy-stuff. Needless to say, eventually bad guys are caught and justice prevails.

Biggest con of the book--already mentioned it. The constant, never-ending inter-connections where Eve is primary investigator in cases where she has a clear conflict of interest. Second, another occasion when Eve is nearly blown up but yet never seems to require hospitalization like a mortal person would.

On the personal front, Peabody and McNab practically move into the house for the duration. So does Feeney. There's an hysterically funny scene early in the book when Eve attempts to get fingerprints off a candy wrapper left behind by the thief who keeps stealing her candy stash. The other major story line is the revelation that Homeland Security had Eve's father under surveillance as part of an operation and knew he was abusing Eve. They had listening devices in the hotel room in Dallas. They knew when he hurt her and when she killed him. In fact, they cleaned up the scene after the fact.

This news--that Eve could have been saved--sets her reeling and enrages Roarke. He basically vows to kill the guys who did it. Since Eve hates murder that causes a deep rift between the two. I got kind of fed up with the whole story line because to my thinking if Roarke loves Eve SO much--he ought to not want to hurt her. He knows that murdering these men who left her in hell would be the exact opposite thing she would want. Who does he want to make happy here, himself or Eve? Ultimately, Roarke figures that out and gives up his plan but not before leaving her alone at night and not taking care of her during one of her nightmares. The other problem with the story line was that it showed a lack of originality. Roarke is a powerful man with political and financial connections. The only way to ruin these jerks is to kill them? I don't think so. How 'bout something imaginative like ruining their careers or wiping out their investments or something? Not to obsess or anything. :O)

Overall, like all In Death books--Divided is worth reading and when Eve and Roarke finally make up I had to wipe my eyes a couple of times. It gets a four out of five stars rating.