Leverage in Death by JD Robb

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Keywords: police procedural, futuristic, crime fiction

A funny thing happened on the way to the TBR stack, this book popped off the top of my library hold list.

This is the latest in the Eve Dallas/... In Death series and honestly, as much as I enjoy these books, I can only give it an OK rating. The villainy just didn't grab me. This time out, a horrendous explosion takes out the conference room where a merger is about to be finalized. One of the company executives, Paul Rogan, has detonated a suicide vest killing eleven people. Officers dispatched to secure his house find his wife and daughter terrorized and tortured. It soon emerges that Rogan was coerced into carrying out the attack. This sort of crime falls within the expertise of Roark, the billionaire business tycoon husband of Lt. Eve Dallas. Who benefits from this act?

If you are a devoted follower of these books you know what you'll get: Eve and Roark will have steamy sex a couple of times, Eve and Roark will have a vicious argument; Eve will threaten to kick Peabody's ass, when captured the villains will be arrogant but Eve will get them in "the box" and break them. There will probably be a personal sub-story going on. This time the video based on a book about one of her cases is up for an Oscar. Much fun is had here.

Despite the somewhat formalistic nature of the books they are a fun read. They have a futuristic setting – Leverage... takes place around 2061– which I enjoy. While there are science fiction elements, scifi doesn't dominate. At their core, these are solid police procedurals with the crimes solved by dogged footwork, process of elimination, and interviews. Eve and her team are aided by the deep data diving skills of her husband Roark. This is the aspect of the ...In Death books that draw me to them, the police trying to determine motives, identifying suspects, looking for links and inconsistencies. Basic police work.

I also like the interaction between the characters, particularly the banter between Eve and her partner Peabody. There are usually several snort-worthy exchanges.

With 47 novels and a title count of around 58 (this includes short stories and novellas), the series is still going strong with two books a year. Nora Roberts, who writes the ...In Death series as JT Robb, is a remarkable author. While writing the ...In Death books, she is also writing romances and family sagas. Her style there is completely different and I haven't been able to finish one.

Roberts has done something interesting with the ...In Death books. Despite the large number of stories told in this world,  only three or four years have elapsed within the since the series began. With a series this large I would not say that a reader can drop into it at any point. There are too many references to events in previous books and a new reader will be left wondering why something was mentioned.  Start with the first book, Naked in Death, published in 1995.