Origin In Death

As the observant reader will note, my planned reading program has kind of gone by the way-side. I started the year out alternating between re-reading an old book and reading a new book. I have had to abandon my course however, because Judy is chasing me with the J. D. Robb re-reads. I don't want her to lap me so I've been forced to read just In Deaths for the last little while. I also just realized that a brand new J. D. Robb, Promises In Death is coming out February 24th and I want to have finished the complete re-read before it comes out. So, now I have to book it or the whole scheme will go down the drain. (Pun unintentional but funny, imo, just the same.) I need to read five more--which is very do-able. Interestingly, (also, to me) I am now in the books that I have only read once. They actually read faster than the familiar ones because I don't really remember them and I feel an urgency to see what happens next which keeps me reading.

The latest book review is on Origin In Death. Two prominent plastic surgeons, with the reputations of saints, are murdered and it seems like there is just no possible motive. Philanthropists, who are loved by everyone, and have spent their lifetimes helping people in need don't seem like the type of people to be killed by a professional. Fortunately, Eve is a cynical woman and she doesn't believe that people who seem so snowy white pure are really that snowy white and pure. Turns out they aren't. They've been helping to run an illegal cloning operation whose goal is a post-evolutionary superior breed of human. The operation amounts to little more than the manufacture of female slaves. The girls are brainwashed from birth and have no say in their futures. Girls who don't measure up to the standards of the creators are terminated--ruthless creeps, indeed.

Highlights--It's Thanksgiving time in New York and Roarke invites his Irish family over for the holiday. They also invite Nadine and date, Mavis and Leonardo, Louise and Charles, and Crack and his date. Peabody and McNab were invited, as were Feeney and family but they had other obligations on the day. Sadly, we don't really get to experience the holiday since the book ends on the Wednesday. Robb did the same thing with the wedding so I'm used to it by now. I don't like it, but I'm used to it.

Low-lights--well, the second murder victim Icove, Jr. has a wife who is a clone. Turns out Icove father and son, cloned three versions of Avril (the wife.) Plot-wise I don't know why the men did that except for the need to have Avril in more than one place at once to establish an alibi. Why would you need three wives? One had to live in Italy and one had to live in France, while the third got to spend her year in New York with the children the three women shared. What purpose the three wives served never made any sense to me. Also, apparently the Icoves and thei other guy in on the scheme were cloning themselves. They viewed it as living "forever". Uh, not to be argumentative--but that's not YOU living forever, dude--just someone who looks like you living on after you. Even assuming that 80% of personality is genetic, the clones/replica would still not be YOU because it would have different life experiences that couldn't be duplicated. If you think too hard about the whole thing it just kind of falls apart on you.

All in all. Origin was a good book. I whizzed through it in one day. The ending is pretty exciting, you know Eve and Roarke are going to survive but it's a bit tricky for a while there. I'll give it four and a half out of five stars.