Naked in Death: Eve Dallas Mysteries (Book 1) is the first novel in a police procedural series that is set in 2058 according to the author’s website thought it is not actually specified in the book itself. AI is everywhere, there are flying cars, and more. Firearms, as we know them, are banned and those that remain are considered antiques and primarily in the possession of the wealthy people who collect them. Despite a technology driven future, there are still murders and a need for a police force.
As the book opens, Detective Eve Dallas awakens in
her New York City apartment just a few hours after she killed a man. The fact
that she ended his life does not haunt her at all. The fact she was unable to save
the young child does. An issue she will need to hide as she goes through
testing today so that she can go back to duty.
At least that was her plan before the Commander sent
her to a homicide at Twenty-Seven West Broadway on the eighteenth floor. Testing,
for now, is out the window, because she is needed on this case and it is a high
priority. Not only is she to be the main detective on the case, she is only to
report to the commander, and a tight lid is in place. Once on scene, she soon
learns why all the secrecy and the restrictions.
It isn't every day the granddaughter of a U.S.
Senator moves to New York and becomes a licensed companion (prostitute). Sharon
DeBlass was that granddaughter and she is now very much dead in her bed. She
was not stabbed or cut by a laser. Instead, she is a victim of three very strategically
placed gunshots. Those gunshots and the gun used are very much a message sent
by the killer to law enforcement and the public.
Her grandfather is Senator DeBlass of Virginia. He comes
from old money and is a very vocal champion of extreme right-wing politics. Why
she was murdered and who killed the 24-year-old woman are the most obvious
questions for Lieutenant Dallas. Clearly, it was not a suicide. The fact that
her wounds were inflicted by gunshot, in this case, a .38 made many years
before the gun ban, could be a political statement of some sort. That fact as
well as the fact that the killer reported the death himself by way of video call
after posing the body means this is not the work of a random killer acting out
of a rage moment. This was a deliberately planned and orchestrated event. Lieutenant
Dallas and her partner for this case, Ryan Feeney, have a bad one on their
hands.
It also will not be the last.
What follows is a complicated police procedural with
a bit of romance that often becomes graphic. The story itself is highly
entertaining despite the author's frequent pov head hops between the
characters. In some paragraphs, two or more head hops happen in the same paragraph
with a couple of sentences. That tends to be disconcerting to the reader as is
the author’s technique of constantly shifting between third person and first
throughout the read. One does tend to get used to it, after a while, but it
does provide a distraction in otherwise entertaining story.
Naked in Death: Eve Dallas Mysteries
(Book 1), overall, is a complicated and very
entertaining police procedural. Graphic in terms of the murders in the book as
well as intimate moments between characters, it is not for every reader. Having
had the series recommended to me by Lesa Holstine in a comment on her Faithless
In Death review, who also pointed out there are fifty more books, I
have my reading work cut out for me. Challenge accepted.
The second book in the series, Glory In Death,
is on the way in large print to my local library branch.
Naked in Death:
Eve Dallas Mysteries (Book 1)
J. D. Robb
https://jdrobb.com/1995/07/naked-in-death/
Putnam
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/300636/naked-in-death-by-j-d-robb/9780593197455
1995
ISBN# 0399151575
Hardback (also
available in audio, eBook, and paperback formats)
294 Pages
My read was an eBook version provided by Barry Ergang from his personal library after he saw my comment on Lesa Holstine’s recent review as noted above.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2021
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