Barbara’s rating: 5 of 5 stars

Series: In Death #52
Publication Date: 2/9/21
Number of Pages: 416

This book is yet another edge-of-your-seat, suspenseful, engrossing, can’t-put-it-down offering by the inimitable J.D. Robb. I can never get enough of this series and if she produced one a week, I’d read it. The first book of the series was set in 2058 and after 52 books, we are only up to the spring of 2061. I’m definitely NOT complaining about the amount of time passing – New York Homicide cops get lots of cases. What amazes me is the imagination the author has and her thorough descriptions of life in that time and the gadgets – OMGoodness, the gadgets are wonderful! I sometimes have to wonder if Robb doesn’t have a bit of the ‘fey’ within her because – well – in the books she talks about the Urban Wars of the 20’s – and just look where we are today in the real-world 20’s. Since the series began in 1995, she couldn’t have known what the real 2020’s would be like. I hope she wasn’t right about all of it – but I do hope she was right about the gadgets – I’d love to have an AutoChef and a car that can go vertical.

This case comes just on the heels of the last case, Shadows In Death. Eve has gone in early to finish up all of the paperwork for that case when she gets the call from dispatch. A body has been found in the West Village. It is a lovely young woman, Ariel Byrd, who is an up-and-coming sculptor. Her head has been bashed in with one of her own tools. The body was only discovered because a 9-1-1 caller reported the dead body. That caller, Gwen Huffman, didn’t report it right away because she panicked and ran away from the scene. Or, did she panic?

Eve and Peabody are off on an investigation that is going to lead to some totally unexpected places and people. Such a ‘normal’, almost insignificant, crime leads to a vile cult named the Natural Order, missing FBI agents, and involvement by the FBI, Interpol, and Homeland Security. OMGoodness – you are in for a roller-coaster of an investigation in this one.

It takes Eve’s entire team, along with Roarke (we can never get enough of him), Feeney and McNab with the rest of the EDD team, not to mention Nadine Furst and ADA Reo to find the real villains and see that they are brought down and punished. I also loved that Police Artist Yancy was more involved in this case. He’s always been a favorite character but doesn’t usually get much page time.

I absolutely loved this read and can highly recommend it. I was left with a bit of a puzzler though. All of those Eve was focusing on finding we definitively solved – whether dead, injured, etc. except one. There was a mention that they thought he was probably dead, but since they wrapped up everyone else, I would have liked to learn, for sure, the fate of Keene Grimsley.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.