IMMORTAL IN DEATH (IN DEATH, BOOK #3) BY J.D. ROBB: BOOK REVIEW

   
Immortal in Death
In Death, Book #3
J.D. Robb
ISBN# 9780425153789
Author’s Website: http://www.jdrobb.com/

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Heidi

This is the third installment of Nora Roberts’s futuristic In Death series written under her pen name, JD. Robb.

In this book, we pick up in the year 2058 with Lieutenant Eve Dallas reluctantly planning her quickly approaching wedding to handsome and rich fiancé, Roarke (or is he doing most of the planning and she’s just along for the ride?).  But in the middle of her planning a body turns up dead like they always do in Eve’s life!  This one was one of her snitch’s, Boomer, and he was beaten to where half his face is gone.

Then, more bodies start showing up in the same condition as Boomer’s.  The whole case becomes even more personal when Eve’s best friend, Mavis, becomes the prime suspect in one of the murders.  Eve won’t rest until she clears her friend, which is proving difficult considering the murder took place in Mavis’s boyfriend’s house and the only DNA and prints found at the scene were Mavis’s.  And it doesn’t help that she had a public fight with the victim earlier that night.

What do a lowlife snitch, a companion at a sex club, and a supermodel all have in common?  They all died for getting in the way of someone making a big profit with their plans of distributing a new illegal drug called immortality.  This new drug makes you stronger, prettier, younger looking and increases your sex drive.  Sounds great except its highly addictive and completely fatal, projected to kill it’s consumers within five to seven years!  Now it’s up to Eve to discover who was set to cash in big on this drug and was the one that was so threatened that they start killing the people getting in their way.

Time is of the essence as usual.  Eve is under a time crunch, she must discover who the killer is before Mavis goes to trial and before her own wedding to Roarke.

After being a little disappointed, with the last installment of the series, Glory in Death, it was great to delve into this one and be drawn in from beginning to end.  I felt this was another story that could realistically happen.  Models being drawn to a drug that makes them look younger regardless of its fatal consequences?  Not to mention the irony of it being called immortality when it actually is slowly killing them.

I found the case in this book to be riveting and I never figured out the killer until it was revealed at the end.

I fell in love with Roarke all over again in this installment with how much he cares for Eve and the way he took care of her after her dream/flashback of her cruel treatment from her father when she was a child.  I loved seeing more of his protective side.

“Summerset, don’t you ever sleep?”

“It’s Lieutenant Dallas. She’s–”

Roarke dropped his briefcase, grabbed Summerset by the lapels. “Has she been hurt? Where is she?”

“A nightmare. She was screaming.” Summerset lost his usual composure and dragged a hand over his hair. “She won’t cooperate. I was about to call your doctor. I left her in her private suite.”

As Roarke pushed him aside, Summerset grabbed his arm. “Roarke, you should have told me what had been done to her.”

Roarke merely shook his head and kept going. “I’ll take care of her.”

I also loved Roarke’s wit and charm and how he interacts with Eve, even when she’s being her most difficult.  He really seems to understand her and knows the best way to deal with her.

“What about your crepe?”

“Stuff It.”

“She’s crazy about you,” Mavis commented.

“It’s almost embarrassing, the way she fawns.”

This book also let us get to know Mavis a lot more than we have in the two previous books and helps us understand why Eve loves her so much.

I couldn’t help, but be engrossed in this book between the exciting murder mystery and Eve and Roarke’s enchanting romance.  I’m not sure which aspect I was more drawn to.

By the end I did not want to put this book down and just kept turning page after page waiting to see what would happen next.  Who the killer was and knowing that Eve would somehow have a showdown with them in the end, as she usually does and not being able to wait and see how Roarke would come to save the day.  Although Eve usually takes care of herself, instead of needing Roarke and this book was no exception.  But even so it left me waiting with bated breath wanting more and I can’t wait to start the next book in the series, Rapture in Death, which I plan to start right now!!