Brought to you by OBS reviewer Heidi
Spoilers Ahead!
It’s 2059 and Eve Dallas has just answered a call to a case that appears to be pretty open and closed. The murderer is actually waiting for her when she gets there drinking a glass of wine. She tells Eve how her boyfriend, J.C. Branson, was cheating on her and she killed him by drilling him to the wall with a drill his company manufactures.
Meanwhile, Peabody’s brother, Zeke, is in town to do some work for B.D. Branson (J.C.’s brother) and his wife, Clarissa. Zeke met Clarissa when she came to Arizona and she hired him on the spot. Now Zeke has a huge crush on her even though she’s a married woman. So when he overhears several incidents while working and discovers that B.D. is abusing Clarissa he vows to get her away from him. But when they are getting ready to leave, B.D. comes home and starts attacking Clarissa. Zeke steps in to protect her and B.D. falls cracking his skull and dying. Clarissa gets rid of the body before Zeke even knows what’s going on so he won’t go to jail for it. But when Eve has the river swept, after Clarissa confesses she had the body dumped there, they find a droid that looks just like B.D. instead of the real thing.
Eve starts receiving discs in the mail from a terrorist group that goes by the name of Cassandra. They blow up one of Roarke’s empty buildings as a demonstration. Then they gave Eve enough time to figure out the next target based on the info they supplied and Eve’s team is able to deactivate the bombs at Radio City. But when they blow up the Plaza hotel, there was nothing they could do as they couldn’t figure out the target. Now it’s a race against the clock to find out what the next target is and how to stop it from being destroyed.
I really enjoyed this book. It was a bit strange though with how this book hit home. It was published before 9/11, back in 1999, but in this story the Pentagon had been blown up several years ago and the towers were one of the targets. I found the terrorist group/bombing storyline pretty compelling and pertinent to our current times, and I think I would have felt the same even if 9/11 had never happened.
It was sad to see Anne killed in the bombings doing her job, but I kind of expected it once she confided to Eve that she was pregnant and was going to make the announcement after the case was over.
This is a book where you got to see a lot more Peabody. I really enjoyed her brother, Zeke, and thought his puppy-love crush on Clarissa was cute until you find out more about her. I felt bad how she set him up though.
Then, we finally get to see Peabody and McNab hook up for a one night stand….Roarke isn’t the only one that can do steamy sex scenes! McNab would do anything to keep things going, but Peabody wants to hear none of that. Of course I’m expecting things to heat up even more in the later installments of the series.
“I should’ve been with him! I should’ve been with him, not you.”“You were with me.” He took her arms, gave her a quick, surprising shake. “You can’t change that. And I want you with me again. Damn it, Dee, I’m not done.”
He was kissing her, with all the helpless rage and lust and confusion that roared through him. She made some little sound, a sound caught between despair and relief. And was kissing him with all the vivid fury and need and bafflement that pumped inside her.”
Eve and Roarke are their usual sexy selves. Although I must say that some of their conversations are getting pretty repetitive. He’s always telling her she looks tired and her saying she’s fine. And I’m sick of him always forcing pills and tranqs on her. But overall I do like the two of them as a couple and I guess you can’t help, but get repetitive at times with a series this big.
This book was really good and now I’m on to the next, Witness in Death.
