Delusion in Death by J.D. Robb (Sep 11, 2012)

 I think after 45 books, novellas and short stories it may be time to start another series, since this one seems to be bogged down and a caricature of what the series used to be. This book is written with the patented JD Robb formula and you cannot get away from it.

The book opens on a horrific scene of people murdering each other during a casual after work drink in a neighborhood bar—over 80 people are dead.  Enter Eve and team---pan to Eve horrified demeanor and the sensibilities of Peabody being shaken to the core. Bring in the full team-enter Roarke, who is starting to really get on my nerves.  Of course, Roarke owns the bar so should and will be sticking his rich nose into everything. The wrong people are accused, footwork is done, and Dr. Mira is consulted - all as per nom.

On one hand, we have an incident straight out of the Urban Wars.  WE have a drug let loose in several places inciting innocent [people to horribly vivid blood lust and berserker behavior.  This unnatural behavior lasts a mere minutes but the havoc it creates leaves an incredible toll. Moreover, this alone should have  been a fascinating story; to see Eve and team search for the master mind.  Yet nobody takes responsibility for this crime, so there is nobody for Eve to really focus on. Yet even with no concrete ‘clues’ Eve will solve the crime mainly by pretty much lying to the accused.

On the other hand (as I have mentioned) you would think that to find the culprit that there would be dangerous and fancy footwork.  You would think! At 64% into the book what we have is yet another deep recap of Eve’s admittedly horrific childhood, some interviews at the cop shop a couple of rote sex scenes and miracle of miracles, Summerset and Eve work together, are polite to each other-dare I say- even nice to each other!

There really is not very much action in this story.  What there is is a lot of blood and guts though.  There is not a lot of Eve’s lighter side showing, some but not a lot.

I realize that in Eve’s world only about 2 years have passed, so technically she could be working on her issues for a long, long time. However, for the reader 17 real years have passed and with this many published works that many of us have read, the angst is  getting a little redundant (at least for me). I for one would appreciate at least every other book to be without Eve’s and Roarke’s angst.