Thankless in Death by J. D. Robb Series: In Death #37
Published by Penguin
Publication Date: September 17th 2013
Genres: Romantic Suspense
Pages: 416
Source: Own
Format: eBook
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In the latest suspense thriller in the #1 New York Times bestselling series, the deepest hatreds seethe within the closest relationships, and blood flows faster than water…
Lieutenant Eve Dallas has plenty to be grateful for, especially Roarke’s big Irish family, which is a joyful improvement on her own dark childhood.
Other couples aren’t as lucky. The Reinholds, for example, are lying in their home stabbed and bludgeoned almost beyond recognition. Those who knew them are stunned—and heartbroken by the evidence that they were murdered by their own son.
Turns out that twenty-six-year-old Jerry is not only capable of brutality but has taking a liking to it. With the money he’s stolen from his parents and a long list of grievances, he intends to finally make his mark on the world. Eve and her team already know the who, how, and why of this murder. What they need to pinpoint is where Jerry’s going to strike next.
It is my opinion that Nora Roberts is undeniably a master of her craft and with her In Death Series written under the pseudonym J. D. Robb, she has set the bar very high for this genre. With my fanfest out of the way, let’s talk Eve Dallas.
It’s Thanksgiving and Eve has got a lot to be thankful for even as she braces herself for the imminent invasion of family and friends for the holiday celebrations. Unfortunately, murder does not take a break for the holidays and she is off to the scene of a double homicide. A couple has been found murdered and everything points to their son as the culprit.
Jerry Reinhold is an entitled SOB. He takes advantage of the generosity of his parents, his girlfriend and everyone else. In his mind, everything wrong is someone else’s fault. He lost his job? It’s his supervisor’s fault for firing him. His girlfriend threw him out of her apartment because he’s out of a job and blew her savings at the tables in Vegas and called the cops on him because he gave her a few ‘love taps’? It’s her fault. His mom nag, nag, nagging him about getting off his ass and getting a job? It’s her fault. He deserves better and will not become his father, slaving away all day for a pittance. But she just won’t quit with the nagging so he picks up the knife she used to make him a sandwich and stabs away at her. He then waits until his father gets home from work and ambushes him with a baseball bat.
Now he is a free man. There is no-one to nag him to be a man anymore or call him worthless. With the resources he liberated from his parents’s bank accounts, he can become the man he is supposed to be and live the way he wants. Now he can get back at all the people who have slighted him in the past.
THANKLESS IN DEATH breaks her usual formula of following the clues to find the bad guy. In this case, we know who the bad guy is from the beginning. Eve and her team are racing against time to find him before he goes after someone else and as they find themselves one step behind him, Eve decides to delve into the mind of her bad guy in order to catch him.
Robb gives us what we have come to expect – the thrill and the adrenaline rush as Eve hunts for the suspect, putting together clues to find his location and the predictable take-down. Mixed in with that are interactions with some of my favorite characters – her husband Roarke, Dr. Mira, Peabody and the rest of the gang. We even get to catch up with some characters from previous books.
However, following the series from the first book, I can see that Eve has mellowed. Even though she is still the murder cop through and through, she does not just live and breathe the job only anymore and is working on finding a balance in her work and home life. However, finding justice for her victims is what she is about and so when she get the offer of a lifetime, it’s very easy for her to turn it down. I could go on and on, but I have one question: If you have not read this series, what are you waiting for?
SERIES ORDER
*Please note: anthologies are not included in the order below*
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About J. D. Robb
With a phenomenal career full of bestsellers, Nora Roberts was ready for a new writing challenge. As her agent put it, like Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, and caffeine-free Pepsi, a pseudonym offered her the opportunity to reach a new and different group of readers. The first futuristic suspense J. D. Robb book, Naked in Death, was published in paperback in 1995, and readers were immediately drawn to Eve Dallas, a tough cop with a dark past, and her even more mysterious love interest, Roarke.
The series quickly gained attention, great reviews, and devoted readers. Since the debut of Loyalty in Death (the ninth In Death book) on Halloween 1999 on the New York Times bestseller list, every J. D. Robb title has been a New York Times bestseller. While fans had their suspicions, it wasn’t until the twelfth book in the series, Betrayal in Death (2001), that the publisher fully revealed that J. D. Robb was a pseudonym for bestselling powerhouse Nora Roberts. Unmasked, Nora Roberts fans who hadn’t yet picked up one of the Robb books were quickly playing catch-up.
Robb’s peers in the mystery world are fans as well, with accolades for the In Death series from such blockbuster authors as Stephen King, Jonathan Kellerman, Dennis Lehane, Kathy Reichs, Lisa Scottoline, Janet Evanovich, David Baldacci, Harlan Coben, Robert B. Parker, Ridley Pearson, Linda Fairstein, and Andrew Gross.
The In Death books are perpetual bestsellers, and frequently share the bestseller list with other Nora Roberts novels. J. D. Robb publishes two hardcover In Death books per year, with the occasional stand-alone original In Death story featured in an anthology.
Thirty books and fifteen years later, there is no end in sight for the ever-popular In Death series.
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