Leverage In Death by J. D. Robb
Leverage In Death
Author: J.D. Robb
Genre: Thriller / Mystery
Date: 24 October 2021
Rating: 4 stars
Review: Nora Roberts, the author of some 100-odd romance novels writes a series of murder myseries / thrillers starring Lieutenant Eve Dallas under the name J.D. Robb. Woman is a machine! Who knows, maybe she writes books under some other names, too. Maybe the entire publishing industry is just Nora Roberts writing under all the names. Anything is possible with the speed at which this woman writes. How rich do you think she is?
Not the point. There was a time when I was addicted to the ‘In Death’ series. What is there to not like about it? It is set in the future. It follows badass NYPSD Homicide police officer, Lieutenant Eve Dallas who has a dark past and is determined to put all manner of criminals in jail. Her boyfriend, later husband, is equally badass, Irish hunk Roarke who has a mysterious past himself and has risen to crazy riches because of his mastermind plotting. Every book is a new mystery and her killers are the kind of dark and gritty that I enjoy reading about. The plus point is that clearly there are far too many books in the series for me to ever finish. So I decided to do the smart thing and read all the books in the series once again, starting with Leverage In Death.
In this book, Eve Dallas is investigating a case of a strange suicide bombing. However, the man who walked into a Wall Street office with a suicide vest strapped on is not your average suspect, he is actually the opposite. After a quick investigation, it is revealed that his beloved wife and daughter were being held hostage and it was either them or a sacrificial bombing that took the lives of multiple others. When another similar bombing takes place, Eve realises that she is on the tail of serial killers with only one thing on their mind, a profit. With help from a cast of characters that have been developed over the series and have each found a place in our hearts, Eve tracks down the men responsible for these deaths.
The series is what it is because of the characters. I keep comparing these series to the books written by Sharon Bolton, the comparison is not that hard given Eve Dallas has a lot in common with the main character of Bolton’s Lacey Flint series. While Bolton’s forte is her atmosphere building and writing, Robb’s forte is her ability to create characters that are pockets of sunshine in an otherwise bleak book. She understands people and relationships in a way that makes for great reading. While Bolton’s books can transform into brilliant atmospheric movies, I imagine the In Death series could translate into the perfect ‘Castle’ or ‘Bones’ kind of television series.
In the case of this book, even the killers are written exceptionally well. With their interactions and the way she profiles the killer, giving us a picture of him even before we are officially introduced to him it feels like we are solving the crime along with Eve. I enjoyed the book, thoroughly, and I’m glad I took up this project.