The Romance Reader

I managed to get ahold of Thankless in Death much sooner than I thought I would, and I spent the next few days immersed in New York 2060.  For those that aren't familiar with the series it centers around Lt. Eve Dallas of the New York Security and Police Department and her husband, Roarke, a former Dublin street rat/thief and billionaire.  In this book, Eve is on the trail of a killer, Jerald Reinhold, who killed both of his parents.

Jerry is a very much grown up Holden Caulfield, if Holden had never received psychological help for his undiagnosed Bipolar Disorder.  He believes that everyone lies, which, well, duh, but he also believes that everyone is out to get him.  His ex-girlfriend dumped him because she wanted to get involved with someone else--not because he was an asshole, who didn't like to pay the rent.  His high school computer science teacher flunked him because she knew that he was smarter than her--come to think of it, he's the fictional version of Tea Party members; if he doesn't get what he wants, he throws a fit and screws over everyone.  Finally, having enough of his mother's nagging, he kills her and discovers who he is.

Unfortunately, Jerry's brand of crazy is slightly smarter than Eve gives him credit for and he manages to catch break after break, staying one step ahead of her for days before one of his victims hands him over to Eve on a silver platter.

All this is going on as Thanksgiving is barreling down on them, bringing with it Roarke's family all the way from Ireland, come to celebrate the holiday with them.  Also, present for Turkey day are Richard and Elizabeth de Blass and their family, including Nixie Swisher, the lone survivor of a horrific murder that Eve investigated previously.  It was nice seeing these characters again and I hope we get to see other characters in future books.

I know a lot of people had problems with this book, saying that they thought it was ghostwritten, but I don't agree.  As a matter of fact, if anything, I felt this one was a return to form after the underwhelming, Calculated in Death, which took me three tries to finish reading.