perhaps, one story...J.D. Robb is the pseudonym for a number-one New York Times-bestselling author of more than 170 novels, including the futuristic suspense In Death series. There are more than 300 million copies of her books in print.
In searching for a pic of the author, I saw two vids I really liked: I hope you do too. The couple in the first one seem perfect for Eve and her husband, Roarke, and the futuristic scenes in the second I thought set the stage nicely...
Missing in Death
By J. D. Robb
Racing across New York Harbor in a turbo wasn't how Lieutenant Eve Dallas expected to spend her afternoon. She played second lead that morning to her partner's primary role in the unfortunate demise of Vickie Trendor, the third wife of the unrepentant Alan Trendor, who'd smashed her skull with an inferior bottle of California chardonnay.
According to the new widower, it wasn't accurate to say he'd bashed her brains out when she simply hadn't had any brains to begin with...
Now, she and Peabody, her partner, were speeding across the water in a boat...toward the orange hulk of a ferry stalled halfway between Manhattan and Staten Island.
"This is absolutely mag!" Peabody stood near the bow, her square-jawed face lifted to the wind, her short, flippy hair flying.
"Why?"
"Jeez, Dallas!" Peabody lowered her shades down her nost exposing delighted brown eyes. "We're getting a boat ride. We're on the water. Half the time you can forget Manhattan's an island."
"That's what I like about it. Out here, it makes you wonder, how come it doesn't sing? All that weight--the buildings, the streets, the people. It should go down like a stone."
"Come on," With a laugh. Peabody pushed her shades back in place. "Statue of Liberty," she pointed out. "She's the best."
Eve wouldn't argue. She'd come close to dying inside the landmark. fighting radical terrorists bent on blowing it up. Even now, she could look at its lines, its grandeur, and see her husband, bleeding, clinging to a ledge outside the proud face...
"...Looks like DOT sent out backup," she commented, nodding toward the turbos at the base of the ferry with the Department of Transportation logo emblazoned on the hull. "I hope she didn't fall over. Or jump. But somebody would notice that, right?"
"More likely she wandered off from the passenger areas, got lost and is currently trying to wander back."
"Blood," Peabody reminded her, and Eve shrugged.
"Let's just wait and see..."
~~~
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| Warren opened the door. "And this is what she found inside." Eve stepped in behind Warren. She smelled the blood immediately. A homicide cop gets a nose for it. It soured the the citrus/sterilized odor of the air in the black-and-white room with its steel sinks, and around the dividing wall, the white-doored stalls. It washed over the floor, a spreading dark pool that snaked in trails across the white, slasked over the stall doors, the opposing wall, like abstract graffiti. "If's that's Grogan's." Eve said. "you're not looking for a missing passenger. You're looking for a dead one." !!! |
Actually, there was more than one woman missing... So was a dead body...
The woman missing had been with her family when her son announced he needed to go to the bathroom. Carolee Grogan had escorted him to the men's restroom then decided she probably should visit one as well. Only thing is that there was an "Out of Order" sign on the door. Afraid to go too far from where her son was, she was hoping the entire restroom was not out of order so she decided to sneek in... But she never came out...
When her husband later asked another woman to go in and check on her, she screamed!
One of the reasons I enjoy Robb's stories is because they are set in the future where gadgets are very sophisticated. This time a stunner had been used. Roarke was explaining what he'd discovered through his computer research and Eve had noted that she, too, had a stunner.
"Not your conventional stunner, but one that renders the target incapacitated through an optical signal rather than the nervous system. It sends a signa, through light, that shuts down certain basic functions. Essentially, in a theory not that far from your mass hyponosis, it puts the target into a kind of trance. Hocus Pocus." He lifted his wineglass in half salute. "It's often referred to as that, which made me thing of it when you used the term..."
"We're talking dozens of people," Eve argued. "Potentially hundreds."
"And the idea this device exists, and has a possibility for that sort of range, is...fascinating. And used as a weapon? Devastating."
Eve pushed up from the table to pace. "I hate this kind of shit. Why can't it just be regular bad guy crap? You've got money, I want it. I kill you. You've been screwing my wife, it pisses me off, I cut out your heart. No, I've got to worry about disappearing bodies and weapons designed to turn the lights out on masses of people. Crap..."
~~~
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| Found on m.weheartit.com |
The other part I am intrigued with is the backgrounds of both Eve and Roarke in their youth. This time there was a reference to Eve and Roarke's own personal mission to watch over the events of that time and ensure nothing ever happened to Eve again. From a reader's standpoint, we have realized that Eve Dallas never would have been the woman she became without her early life. Still, it never stops me from feeling bad, knowing what had happened to her...
That wasn't his problem, but Eve's, he thought. His would be to track down Ivan Draski and the device. She'd keep her word on the twenty-four hours, just as he had kept his in not seeking revenge on the operatives who'd been a part of allowing her to be tormened and raped as a child, who'd allowed that child to wander the streets, broken and dazed after she'd killed to save herself...
~~~
Eve always solves her cases! and this one is no different. But unlike most police procedurals, Eve does allow Roarke, her husband, a civilian, to help her in the background. Especially in this case, since he had met up with the victim, once discovered, and could add greatly to the background knowledge and why the murder might have occurred.
Roarke, by the way, for those who have never read J.D. Robb, is a past criminal and now a fabulously wealthy businessman who owns businesses both on and off planet. He is a master hacker and has advanced computers that are well beyond the capability of those used by Eve's staff... Her staff is also a great group of characters, with her partner hooked up with the chief computer guru and a full range of others inside and outside of the police community that continue to be featured in personal situations while the murder investigations go on. I've read the entire series and have yet to not be able to love each and every story, never tiring from reading another.
Do check out J. D. Robb... Hey, even if you're reading Nora Roberts, I'll bet you might like J.D.Robb even better...LOL
GABixlerReviews
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| In the spirit of the season, here's a photo of the one tree Nora has in her home (instead of the forest in Roarke and Eve's). Before closing up shop for the holiday and settling down to the serious business of family time, we wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! ~Nora and Laura 
Listening to Natalie Cole and Andre Bocelli! LOL
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