FFB Review: Echoes in Death: In Death Series by J.D. Robb

 

It is early 2061 as Echoes in Death begins and Eve Dallas just wants to go home. She did her duty under, as she refers to it, “the marriage rules,” and had gussied up for Roarke and gone to the charity ball. She got through the event safely despite a couple of absolute fools that also attended. She did her job of as wife to quite possibly the richest man in the world. Now it is time to get home, ditch the dress and heels, and get back to normal.

 

At least that was the plan.

 

Would have happened to if a naked woman had not stepped out into the roadway right in front of them as they headed home. Naked, bloody, and very disoriented, she was very lucky that Roarke was able to stop in time. They bundle her into the car and head for the nearest hospital.

 

As Eve calls it in to the hospital, she sees the woman has got cuts, abrasions, as well as ligature marks around the neck. She has other injuries as well and appears to have blood on her that is not her own.

 

They get her to the hospital and Dr. Del Nobel begins to asses and treat her. Thanks to Dallas’ scan of her fingerprints, they soon learn that the woman is 24-year-old Daphne Strazza. She is married to the more than two decades older Anthony Strazza. The same Dr. Anthony Strazza, who is a big shot at this same hospital, and is not very well thought of or liked.

 

Soon, Roarke, and Dallas, discover the former big shot doctor went through considerable hell before he died.  Daphne’s story regarding what she went through and saw is convoluted and does not make sense. But it is clear, she went through hell. She is lucky to be alive. Her far older husband is very dead.

 

Is she involved in some way? Was she part of a plan to kill her husband and she went through far more than originally intended? Or, is she totally innocent, and is only a brutally traumatized victim?

 

Time will tell as this first married couple are just the top of a brutally violent pyramid of rape, murder, and more in Echoes in Death.

 

As always, the head hopping POV is initially disruptive. At least, it is for this reader. However, as it often happens, the case evolves and the storyline progresses, that all falls away, and the reader is left with a complicated read that pulls one into an intriguing mess. Mostly police procedural, part romance, Echoes in Death is another good one in a long line of good reads. It maybe nearly 20 years in the future, and the weapons are different, but the themes are universal.

So too is my need for Roark’s library and a working Auto Chef.

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3x2C6gq

 

My reading copy came by way of the Libby/OverDrive App and the Dallas Public Library System.

 

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2024