Review: Dark in Death (In Death #46) by J.D. Robb

Print Length: 384 pages

Publisher: St. Martin's Press (February 1, 2018)

From Goodreads.com: On a chilly February night, during a screening of Psycho in midtown, someone sunk an ice pick into the back of Chanel Rylan’s neck, then disappeared quietly into the crowds of drunks and tourists in Times Square. To Chanel’s best friend, who had just slipped out of the theater for a moment to take a call, it felt as unreal as the ancient black-and-white movie up on the screen. But Chanel’s blood ran red, and her death was anything but fictional.

Then, as Eve Dallas puzzles over a homicide that seems carefully planned and yet oddly personal, she receives a tip from an unexpected source: an author of police thrillers who recognizes the crime—from the pages of her own book. Dallas doesn’t think it’s coincidence, since a recent strangulation of a sex worker resembles a scene from her writing as well. Cops look for patterns of behavior: similar weapons, similar MOs. But this killer seems to find inspiration in someone else’s imagination, and if the theory holds, this may be only the second of a long-running series.

The good news is that Eve and her billionaire husband Roarke have an excuse to curl up in front of the fireplace with their cat, Galahad, reading mystery stories for research. The bad news is that time is running out before the next victim plays an unwitting role in a murderer’s deranged private drama—and only Eve can put a stop to a creative impulse gone horribly, destructively wrong.

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My Rating: 4 stars out of 5

The last couple of book in this series have been hit or miss for me. For some time now, each book has felt "off" to me, as though some key element from the earlier books is now missing. I don't know it maybe the author is feeling burned out from writing so many books in this series, or if its because the earlier books were so edge of your seat amazing that as a reader, I now have a higher expectation of what I think these books should be. 

To be honest, I enjoyed this installment of the series more than I did the prior installment (Secrets in Death).I found the fact that they killer was emulating a book series to be an interesting twist (considering this not only gave Eve an her crew a bit of a heads up, but the fact that it makes me insanely curious if the author has had any crazed fan letters such as described in the story). I also enjoyed the interactions between Eve and the secondary characters that I have grown so fond of over the years (Feeny, Nadine, Mavis, etc). I do think the actual take down of the suspect wasn't as adrenaline inducing as I would have liked considering, but the way it was done worked well with the overall plot. 

I feel it is important to point out that although this book stands on its own (with a solid beginning, middle and end), that you have to read at least some of the prior novels in order to understand just who these characters are and their interactions with each other.

All things considered, I do think some of the long time fans of this series may be disappointed, but I enjoyed this installment and look forward to the next. And it is my honest week that if the author is feeling burned out that she find a way to take a break for a while. I would rather have to wait a bit longer for the next book than continue to feel like the author has missed the mark.

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                            Dark in Death is available from Amazon.com