Trigger Warning – Child Abuse
Glory In Death (In Death #2)
Renowned prosecutor Cecily Towers is found dead in a seedy part of town. What was she doing there? And could she know her killer? This case is personal for Commander Whitney, but he knows if there is one detective who won’t be afraid to ask the hard questions and dig deep, it’s Lieutenant Eve Dallas. Now saddled with a high profile case and a Billionaire (with a B) boyfriend, Eve has to face some harsh realities about herself as her ruthless pursuit is criticized and pushed under harsh media scrutiny.
I hoped we were going to get more on Eve’s love interest Roarke. I mean he comes off as such a typical love interest, he’s basically there to play the rich and powerful fantasy trope to a T. I mean there is this one interesting angle to their relationship in that Eve is a strict law-abiding cop and Rorake is a (mostly) reformed criminal. Also, HE DOESN’T HAVE A LAST NAME (or first name ?) I WANT MORE ON THAT. I guess what I really want is more character building for Roarke. Sometimes when he swoops in to give Eve part of his fancy world, it feels like Eve’s a reluctant heroine in a Harlequin Presents.
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One thing I like about this series is how it allows Eve to have a variety of relationships with other female characters. So often I find other women in romance (yes, I’m calling this book a romance it says romantic suspense on the spine) fall between being the bestie supportive friends r enemy. In Glory, Eve respects and revers murder victim Cecily Towers, she builds a working relationship with the pushy news anchor Nadine Furst and is a mentor to beat cop, Delia Peabody.
Speaking of Peabody, this character’s complexion was the backdrop of a controversy in the Nora-fandom. A misunderstanding lead some readers to question if Peabody is a person of color. In a book that does odd things with race to begin with, I’m disappointed over Robb’s response that she hadn’t spent much time on the character’s complexion. I mean if you can take the time to think of how communications, media, sex and gun laws have changed; surely there is room to consider people of color…who you know also live in New York City.
This got me thinking because complexion and/or race does come up in this series in a lot of weird ways. In the first book Eve points out certain characters as being “multicultural” and in this book Eve is referred to (by Crack, a Black bouncer/pimp/night club owner filled with unfortunate implications) as “white girl” so I mean race does exist. It’s (as per usual) only pointed out when the person is not white I’m on the third book now and a 7 foot tall exotic dancer and the pimp/bouncer from earlier are described (twice) as “a black” with indefinite articles. What is that about?
Honestly for a book written in the ’90s by a middle-aged lady I (in my opinion) wouldn’t expect her to think about this, but what about the editors or the publisher? I legit want to write a letter. This is turning into one large your faves are problematic. However, since Roberts leaves complexion open to interpretation, in my head Peabody looks like Zoe Kravtiz. – ★★★
Immortal In Death (In Death #3)
Slight spoiler
alert ( even though this is the case for 95% of the series) Eve is getting married to Rorake whose presence (read usefulness) in the series I’m starting to question more and more.
Eve thinks she is finally getting a break from high profile cases when she starts investigating the murder of a lowly police informant but soon Eve is straddling the world between the bold and beautiful when a famous model’s murder might be connected to the case. Things gets personal for Eve because Eve’s eccentric best friend, Lady Gaga–er Mavis Freestone could become a suspect. No seriously every time Mavis is described all I picture is Lady Gaga.
Eve isn’t completely alone juggling this case as she enlists the help of beat cop Delia Peabody and the charmingly southern Lieutenant Cast.
Out of the first three novels this one had a mystery that felt the most solid and a great twist ending. We really get behind and take apart each suspect’s motives and alibis. I’m starting to gather that Robb’s favorite thing to write is Eve interrogating people,
In the background of this story, Eve begins to remembers more about her abusive childhood and the reality of who she is and how she
ended up abandoned. I’ve always heard on DBSA how kids are harmed a lot in romantic suspense and this series is no exception. It honestly makes the book hard to read at times. Since I think each book is written to possibly be read as a stand-alone, I pretty much assume her abuse is going to come up in every book as a way to introduce the character. – ★★★
