Review: Thankless in Death

Thankless in Death
In Death, Book 37
J.D. Robb

Released: Feb 2014

Berkley, mass market paperback, 371 p.
ISBN: 978-0-515-15413-9


Lieutenant Eve Dallas has plenty to be grateful for, especially Roarke's big Irish family, which is a joyful improvement on her own dark childhood.

Other couples aren't as lucky.  The Reinholds, for example, are lying in their home stabbed and bludgeoned almost beyond recognition.  Those who knew them are stunned - and heartbroken by the evidenc that they were murdered by their own son.

Turns out that twenty-six-year-old Jerry is not only capable of brutality but has taken a liking to t.  With the money he's stolen from his parents and a long list of grievences, he intends to finally make his mark on the world.  Eve and her team already know the who, how, and why of these murders.  What they need to pinpoint is where Jerry's going to strike next.

I was fully prepared to dive right into Thankless in Death {TiD} and have a great time - as I usually do - in the world of Eve & Roarke.   However, I was surprisingly disappointed with TiD.  Having the antagonist served up on a silver platter - name, motive, and all - was actually quite boring.  I much prefer it when Eve, and team of course, have to push themselves to the last minute to uncover the identity of their unsub - as well as their motives.  With Jerry Reinhold as the murderer, it just fell flat!  You can't reveal his identity as a spoiler as this time its stated right there in the blurb!

Over the course of nearly 380 pages, Jerry reeks revenge on slights going back to childhood, and paints the town red, so to speak.  He seems to elude Eve at every turn, and his one goal - apart from the murder and mayhem - seems to be living in the luxury one might expect of Roarke.  Finally, Eve gets her man, yet once Jerry is caught, he is such a whinging, arrogant, self absorbed pratt, that it's comical that he eluded Eve's handcuffs for so long.  Don't get me wrong, he's actually one of the most dangerous felons that they've had for quite a while, but for the suspense the very dangerous killers usually produce, this was suspence lite.  For a series that has delivered fabulous tension in the past I have to say that this installment in the series has done it no favours and in all honesty it really sucked.  There have been other In Death books in the past that I haven't loved, but this is the first one that really pushed all my boring buttons. 

That's not to say that all of the book was bad.  There are some scenes that were very interesting which is why it got 2½ stars and not the 1½ to 2 stars I was going to give it.  The world building is still fabulous.  I can hardly wait to see 2060 (in my old age) to see if any of the futuristic products are there ;-D.  There is still that fabulous attraction between Eve & Roarke (can never get enough of those scenes), and we see some familiar faces from past cases as little Nixie Swisher and her adoptive family rock up to help Eve celebrate the Thanksgiving Holiday.  The addition of the Irish cousins was great.  I always love to see Roarke soak up the love that he encounters from his newly discovered family.  Plus Sean is back again as the bloodthirsty little bugger that Eve secretly adores.

So while TiD on the whole was a big flop for me - when compared to other titles such as Naked in Death, etc - at least I can console myself as I picked up my reserved copy of Concealed in Death from the library this morning.  Perhaps it will make up for TiD.