On the flipside though, it's still a fantastic read. The plot is great and incorporates all of our favorite supporting characters, and introduces a few more- Peabody's brother Zeke, as week and Malloy, a fellow female cop who Eve admires and befriends. The passion and love between Eve and Roarke is as wonderful as ever, and Nora proves that she is the master of writing tasteful yet steamy sex scenes. My favorite subplot is the sexual tension of Peabody and McNabb finally coming to a serious head- can't wait for them to fall for each other hard in later books. Read this, you'll love it!
If you are new to the series, you may find it helpful to read some of the previous books as well - while each book in this series can stand alone as a police procedural/thriller, it is more fun if you can also follow the background stories of the personal lives of our characters. Eve Dallas is our police lieutenant hero, of course, and her husband Roarke (just Roarke) is his rich, enigmatic self. The interaction between Eve's sidekick/aide Peabody, and fellow cop McNab, gets tenser in this book (think elevators!). Mavis, Eve's best friend, is having success with her singing career. All of these background sub-plots are one of the fun parts of the series. It's a tradition that hangs over from police procedural series started more than 40 years ago, such as Ed McBain's 87th Precinct series, and it's nice to see Robb pay homage to that great tradition.
The plot of this particular volume involves a terrorist group destroying New York landmarks, a theme that will perhaps resonate even more with readers now (I write this review in Jan 2002) than it did when the book was first published. It is poignantly sad to see that on the list of proposed targets is the Twin Towers - I had to shake my head and say, sorry, the terrorists didn't wait that long... The final target, and the culmination of the book, will keep you awake and reading. And who the terrorists are will make you think, about how such things carry on through the generations, and contemplate how we could go about trying to break that cycle.
This was the best book yet in this excellent series! I don't know how Nora Roberts (a.k.a JD Robb) does it, but she keeps whipping out really great stories! The "in Death" series has been very exciting to read each book, and getting to know the characters a little better with each book!