Reunion in Death

Author: J.D. Robb

Published: March 5, 2002

Category: Romantic Suspense

Series: In Death #14

Rating: 8/10

In this entry into the In Death series, Eve faces an old foe, a beautiful young woman who married old rich guys and offed them. She was part of the team that captured her, and now that Julianna Dunne is out of prison, she's getting her revenge by offing men she'd scoped as potential targets before she was convicted, and Roarke is one of them. It's not because he's rich, and he's certainly not old, but because he belongs to Eve.

There was nothing wrong with Eve or Roarke that makes me go below my usual 9/10 rating for a book in this series. Something about Julianna, the villain, was disappointing. She was so petulant when she didn't get her way that I found it hard to see her as this intelligent and cold-blooded killer. She escaped detection in most cases because of her femininity. I think I was a little put off by that, expecting more of my villain than some batting eyelashes and convenient tears.

Peabody and McNab grow only more endearing, with Eve giving Peabody a cold case to solve. Despite Eve ragging on Peabody all the time, she really does care about training her and bettering her skills as a good cop.

Eve also deals with some unwelcome intrusion into her childhood when Peabody's parents stay in her house for a visit. While Mr. Peabody, a "sensitive" (aka psychic) is helping Eve with a headache, he accidentally glimpses the horrors Eve endured as a child. While this did make things awkward for a while, Eve deals with it, knowing that she can't stonewall caring people from her life.