Missing In Death is a short story, part of J.D. Robb's "In Death" series.  Like all of the books in the series, it takes place in the future, and features Lieutenant Eve Dallas, a police detective in New York.

In this case, it's the year 2060, and we're joining a bunch of tourists on the Staten Island Ferry.  But one passenger's trip is about to be interrupted.  By murder.  The question is, where's the victim's body?  How does someone dump a body, and get off a ferry, unnoticed by the thousands of other passengers onboard?

That's when Eve comes in.  With the help of her partner, Peabody, Eve will need to figure out who the victim was, who the killer is, and how did they both disappear?

Of course, Eve will figure all of this out - she always does.  But that won't be the interesting part of this particular book.  The interesting part will be the dilemma she faces, once she has her murderer.  Because everything is not always black and white.  Some situations are in the grey areas, between right and wrong.  And while Eve usually stays pretty close to the letter of the law, in this case, she has to decide which action serves the greater good.  It's a fascinating dilemma, and it makes this book stand out from the rest of the series, in which a pretty straight path is usually followed.  This one definitely veers.

I enjoyed the change of pace in this story.  It definitely does not suffer from predictability or the "same story, different title" syndrome that plagues some of the stories in this series. 

And, it's nice to see the same characters appear.  Peabody, McNab, Roarke, and Summerset all put in appearances, although they all have very small roles.  Of course, this entire book is only around 100 pages, so you wouldn't expect too many characters to have large roles.

The only problem with this story is that it assumes you have an understanding of Eve's tragic childhood.  Of course, anyone who has read the previous books in the series will understand what happened to Eve, but if you read this book as a stand-alone, you will be confused as to what is driving her.  Although the past is touched upon a little bit, not nearly enough details are given to really help a new reader understand the motivations behind Eve's actions.  This is a problem seldom encountered in this series.  Robb usually does a good job of bringing everyone up to speed as she goes along.  But in this case, she dropped the ball a little bit.  So - if you're new to the series, definitely don't start with this one!

But if you've been reading and enjoying the series, you'll like this one.  It's different from the rest - but in a good way. 

Divided In Death
Glory in Death
Haunted In Death
Indulgence In Death
Interlude In Death
Judgment In Death
Midnight In Death
Origin In Death
Rapture In Death
Reunion In Death
Vengeance In Death

Recommended: Yes