dragonfire88's Full Review: J. D. Robb and Nora Roberts - Purity in Death
For a long time I had been hearing how good the books by J.D. Robb were. Just over two years ago, I finally did some checking and found out what the books were about. They sounded very interesting to me, so I got the first book in the In Death series, Naked in Death. I was hooked immediately. I got all of the books within a few months time, and now I get the new books as soon as they come out. Purity in Death is the newest book in the series.
Before I start to discuss Purity in Death, I’m going to provide some background information about the series so people who are unfamiliar with it won’t be lost with my review. Purity in Death is the fifteenth book in the In Death series by J.D. Robb. There are also two short stories that are part of the series. The In Death series is set in the future. The first book in the series was set in 2058. Purity in Death takes place in July of 2059. The characters have all kinds of gadgets to use. I think those things are really interesting, and I want some of them myself - like the machine that spits out perfectly cooked food for you.
The same main characters, along with some minor characters, return in each book. Eve Dallas, a Lieutenant on the New York police force, and her very wealthy husband Roarke are the main characters to the series. Eve is a homicide detective and dedicated to her job. In each book Eve has a different case to work on. Roarke ends up involved in the investigations somehow. Each of the books has their own plots, so they can stand alone, but I think they should be read in order. That way the reader can meet the characters as they are introduced to the books and how they develop as characters. When the books are read in order, the reader can see how relationships develop and grow. Over the course of the books Eve and Roarke met, feel in love, became lovers, got married, adjusted to married life, and celebrated their first anniversary in the last book, Reunion in Death. In this book, I thought it was funny how Eve got annoyed with Roarke for programming the computers in the house to call her Darling Eve. I really like the fact that the same characters return in each book. Several minor characters return in each book, or in every few books too.
New York City was in the middle of a heat wave in July. People had been very irritable, and more crimes were being committed. The heat was making people nuts and causing normally calm people to flip out. Louie K. Cogburn was a drug dealer who mainly targeted his business to middle class kids between the ages of ten and fourteen. He was serious about his business, but he never made a lot of money. Louie had been feeling irritable recently, and he had a horrible headache. He was working on his computer with his stereo blaring when one of his neighbors came to his apartment, asking him to turn down the stereo. Louie grabbed his baseball bat and left his apartment swinging.
Lieutenant Eve Dallas was working in her office at Cop Central, dreading spending the night at a business dinner with her husband Roarke. She received a call for a cop, Trueheart, from a crime scene. Trueheart had been on his way home and he responded to a woman’s cries for help. He encountered Louie, who ended up dead. Eve and her aide Peabody headed to the scene. Eve believed Trueheart’s account of what happened, but some things were not adding up. The blast from Trueheart’s stunner, which was set on the lowest setting, shouldn’t have been strong enough to kill, but Louie died. There was also a strange message, Absolute Purity Achieved, on Louie’s computer. Eve thought it might be some sort of new drug. She had the computer taken to the EDD, the Electronics Detective Division, to be checked out.
Eve was feeling guilty because she got Trueheart’s assignment changed a few months before. She seemed to be feeling protective of him. She did some investigating and discovered that Louie had normally been a very calm man. His recent irritability was completely out of character. Eve got the Medical Examiner to start the examination of the body sooner. He discovered that Louie’s brain was very swollen, and he would have died within a few hours. The Medical Examiner was going to do more tests.
Feeney, the head of the EDD, assigned Detective Halloway to check out Louie’s computer. Feeney had caught Halloway playing a computer game when he was supposed to be working, so Feeney was giving him extra work. After spending a few hours working on the computer, Halloway was very grumpy and had a bad headache. He was mad at Feeney for giving him more work. He was also mad at McNab for some reason. Halloway became more irritable the longer he worked with the computer. His rage built until he flipped out. He went after McNab first and then held Feeney hostage in his office. The standoff ended with Halloway’s death. Eve is convinced that the same thing happened to Halloway that happened to Louie, and she thought that the computer was involved. McNab was injured and taken to the hospital. He was later released and stayed with Eve and Roarke. Summerset, Roarke’s butler, was taking care of McNab.
Later that night, another body was found, Chadwick Fitzhugh. His computer had the same message about absolute purity that had been on Louie’s computer. Chadwick was a known pedophile that had managed to avoid going to jail. A group that called themselves the Purity Seekers contacted the press and claimed responsibility for the deaths of Louie and Chadwick. They were targeting people who somehow harmed children but stayed out of jail for some reason. They had more deaths planned. The group developed a computer virus that would infect people and ultimately kill them. Eve was determined to find them before they killed again.
Purity in Death is a wonderful book. I loved it. I made a special trip to the bookstore the day it came out to get it, and I finished reading it that night. Once I started reading it, I couldn’t put it down. There was always something happening, so I was never bored. I hated for it to end. The parts of the plot I discussed are just from the beginning of the book and a lot more happened throughout the book. I’m already impatient for the next book in the series to come out. New books in this series come out twice a year. The next book is scheduled to be out in March of 2003. I really wish more of these books came out each year.
Purity in Death was very well written and descriptive. It was easy for me to imagine what was going on as I read the book. It was fast paced with many things happening in a short period of time, but the book wasn’t rushed. A lot of things happened over the course of the book.
Purity in Death is a mystery with some romance, like all of the books in the In Death series have been. The mystery, the computer virus that can kill people, was the main focus of the book. The romance didn’t detract from the mystery. I didn’t know what was going to happen next several times during the book. There was some violence described in some scenes. The death of one person was described as it happened. The dead bodies of some victims were described, as well as some of the examinations the Medical Examiner did. Those scenes were descriptive, but not overly graphic. They could be too descriptive for some readers. There was some swearing throughout the book. The word that rhymes with luck was used several times throughout the book, but it wasn’t used excessively. Anyone who doesn’t like to read descriptions of violence or books with swearing shouldn’t read this book.
The relationship between Eve and Roarke provided the romance in Purity in Death. They have been married for just over a year. They seemed to have adjusted to married life fairly well by this time, but they did still have a disagreement or two. I have really enjoyed reading how their relationship has grown and changed throughout the books. There were some sexual acts described in a few scenes throughout the book. The scenes were descriptive, but not excessively so. They could be too descriptive for some readers though. Readers who are offended by descriptions of sex, or who don’t like to read those things shouldn’t read this book. Some things related to the romance part of the book are predictable, but that didn’t detract from the book for me.
Two other characters, Peabody and McNab, were also involved in a relationship in Purity in Death. Their relationship has also been depicted over the course of the series as it grows and changes. Neither character was in a lot of the book, and there was only one scene between them when they were alone, so there wasn’t too much related to their relationship in Purity in Death. There was one development that I was happy to read. I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t more related to them and their relationship in the book. I hope there will be more concerning them in the next book.
In a few different scenes in Purity in Death, motherhood or babies were brought up. More than one character called Eve a mother because of the way she was worrying about Trueheart after the incident with Louie. Eve and Roarke were in an elevator with a woman who was going to visit a woman who just had a baby. Two of the minor characters are going to become parents. Eve and Roarke both weren’t sure what to think about that news. Neither of them had a happy childhood, or knows too much about children. A teenage boy that Eve and Roarke met during one of Eve’s investigations was spending a lot of time around their house in this book. The boy was very good with computers, and was actually helping the police with their investigation. It seemed like Roarke had taken him under his wing. I’ve been wondering if perhaps Robb was making these references to babies and parenthood in anticipation of Eve and Roarke becoming parents. I would love to see that happen. I think it would be really interesting to see Eve and Roarke adjust to being parents. I also think that Summerset would love to take care of their baby.
J. D. Robb, the author of the In Death series, is Nora Roberts. When she started to write the series, she decided to use a different name for them since they were so different from her other books. I have every book in the In Death series, and I have several Nora Roberts books. The J.D. Robb and Nora Roberts are different, but there are some similarities. They are all well written and descriptive. They have mysteries and romances in them. The main female characters are usually strong and independent. There are some differences between the different books too. The In Death series focuses on the mystery aspects of the book, while the Roberts books are usually more focused on the romance. The big difference is the time in which the books are set since the In Death books are set in the future. These books are a little different because of that, but they are very good. I think that people who like either the J.D. Robb books or the Nora Roberts books would like the other books as well. I started out reading the Robb books first and then moved onto the Roberts books, and I love them all. One book, Remember When, was listed as being written by both authors. It started in current time and finished up in Eve's time. Both halves of the book were connected by a mystery. Remember When took place between Imitation in Death and Divided in Death.
Eve and Roarke were the main characters in Purity in Death, like they have been in all of the books in the In Death series. They, especially Eve, have grown and changed throughout the books. Both of them have been very well developed over the course of the series. There wasn’t a lot of new development for them in Purity in Death since there has been a lot of development for them in the previous books. Peabody and McNab have been in several books as supporting characters. They are still developing characters. Feeney has been in every book in the series, but he hasn’t been as developed as many of the other characters. I really like the fact that the same group of characters returns in each new book. The characters are familiar to me now, and it is almost like I’m visiting with old friends when I read a new book with them in it.
CHARACTERS
Eve Dallas - She is a Lieutenant on the police force. She is dedicated to her job, but she has developed a life outside of work. She is happily married to Roarke. She sometimes acts annoyed with her friends, but she does really care for them. She has a clear idea of what is right and wrong, but she will bend the law once in a while. She feels responsible for the people she works with.
Roarke - Eve’s husband. He is the richest man in the country, maybe on the world. He owns buildings and property all around New York City, the world, and even out in space. He loves his wife and wants to protect her. He tends to get mixed up in her investigations so he can try to help and protect her. He had a horrible childhood, and he started out as a criminal, but he has turned around. He is willing to do things to help Eve’s friends and co-workers.
Delia Peabody - She is a cop who has been working with Eve for a while now. She likes to tease Eve at times. Peabody is good at her job and determined to do a good job on the investigations she works on with Eve. Peabody is involved with Ian McNab, another officer. Peabody has become one of Eve’s friends.
Ian McNab - He works in the EDD with Feeney. He has worked on several cases with Eve and Peabody. He is involved with Peabody. He dresses and acts goofy at times, but he is very good at his job. He has become friends with Eve and Roarke. McNab always likes being able to work out of Eve’s home office. He also seems to like annoying her at times.
Feeney - He is in charge of the EDD. He has been on the force for years, and he trained Eve. He is friends with Eve and Roarke.
Trueheart - Officer who was involved in an incident with Louie. Trueheart has worked with Eve in the past, and she got his assignment on the force changed. He looks up to and trusts Eve.
Summerset - Roarke’s butler. He has worked for Roarke for years. The two men knew each other in Ireland. Summerset acts like he can’t stand Eve, but he really does like her. He just won’t admit it most of the time. He acts like he is annoyed when her schedule or friends disrupt the household, but he also seems to like her friends.
Mavis - She has been Eve’s friend for a long time. She is a singer and is involved with a fashion designer. Mavis is very unique. She changes hair colors frequently.
Halloway - He was a Detective in the EDD. Feeney caught him playing a computer game when he should have been working. Halloway ended up getting extra work, including working on the first computer infected with the virus.
Louie Cogburn - He was a drug dealer who mainly sold to children. He was the first victim of the Purity Seekers.
Purity in Death was another great book in the In Death series. It is a must read book for anyone who has read and enjoyed the previous books in the series.
For the first time in print comes the 15th installment in Nora Roberts's (writing as J.D. Robb) bestselling futuristic In Death series (following "Reu...More at HotBookSale
For the first time in print comes the 15th installment in Nora Roberts s (writing as J.D. Robb) bestselling futuristic In Death series (following Reun...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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