Reunion in Death

It's been a busy week, but I am finally ready to post my review of Reunion in Death by J. D. Robb. I'm surprised this one took me the whole week to finish since it's has the feel of a quick read. I blame Judy's constant unmuting of the television. It's distracting. She blames my addiction to Zuma. Without a third party opinion we'll have to call this argument a draw. (But I'm right.)

Back to the review--this latest outing by Eve and Roarke features a serial killer who has a grudge against Eve. Back when Eve was first promoted to Detective, she put Julianna Dunne in prison. She was one of those black widow types--marry an old rich guy, kill him, inherit beaucoup bucks. She played on the sympathy of the judicial system and claimed she'd been abused so she was only given a ten year sentence. Now with good behavior she's out and she wants revenge.

Notable events of this book include a visit by Peabody's Free-Ager parents, Peabody's first solo outing solving a cold case homicide, and Eve's return to Dallas the city where she was found after she escaped from her father. I think these alternate story lines are the reason why the book feels like such a quick read. The book ends with a spectacular multi-room fist-fight, let's cause as much destruction as possible, take-down by Eve of Julianna Dunne after she makes the mistake of trying to poison Roarke. You do not want to try to hurt Roarke if you are planning to live long and prosper in Eve Dallas' world.

Nit Picks and other comments--No Mavis in the story--which is always too bad since she is a colorful character. No Nadine in the story--which is not a problem because she's pretty one dimensional---wait a minute, I'm wrong Nadine does appear in the story but clearly not in any memorable way since I forgot about it. Nice little appearance by Louise Dimatto--who has morphed into Eve's personal physician. Handy since Eve is always getting beaten up and Louise will treat her at home in return for big donations to her pet projects. I did think that Eve and Roarke should have told Louise that they were using her charity fundraiser as a vehicle to draw out a killer at the end of the book. I'm all about informed consent.

In the ranking of the Eve Dallas chronicles, I would put Reunion up there in the top five. As I said it is a quick read, it has some really funny bits, and Eve's personal story moves forward. I rank it a four and one half stars out of five. I kind of want to start the next book, Purity in Death right away, but I'm going to stick to my schedule of read a new book, re-read an Eve so I can continue to be competitive in the 2009 Book Challenge.