The Romance Reader

I have to confess that I had to start this book three times to get into it, which is something that I've never had to do with one of the In Death books before.  I, honestly, don't know if it was me or if it was the book, but I just couldn't get into it either of the first two times I tried to read it.  I finally managed to finish it on the third try (I guess they say "the third time's the charm" for a reason).

I had a few problems with the book.  First, it was really slow to start.  Eve had absolutely no suspects; everyone seemed clean.  Now, don't get me wrong, I didn't want to know who the killer was right off the bat, but no one is as clean as these characters appeared to be.

Second, the focus was on the case more than it was on the main characters.  Personally, I like my characters to grow and change, but they can't do that if the relationships take a back seat to the case.  What there was of the relationships was really good.  I loved the fact that Baxter wants Trueheart to take the Detective's Exam and I really liked hearing what Trueheart had to say about Eve's current case.  It was nice to see him growing into his job and getting rid of some of his green, as Baxter put it.

Third, I did not like the fact that Eve was willing to put civilians in harm's way in order to catch the killer.  I felt this was very out of character for her and I don't understand why she couldn't just arrest all parties before the big Icove premiere.

Let's face it; I will always love this series.  The characters are great and it always feels like coming home when I jump into one of the books.  That doesn't mean that some of the books aren't going to be clunkers.  At 30+ books that would be a miracle.  I am holding out a lot of hope for Thankless in Death because Roarke's family are going to be back in that one and I love seeing Eve off kilter, which is sure to happen with all those people.