Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Book Review: Purity in Death by J. D. Robb

Purity in Death
Author: J. D. Robb
Publication: Berkley (August 27, 2002)

Description: Eve Dallas must face the impossible: someone has unleashed a computer virus that may be able to spread from machine to man.

My Thoughts: This episode of the In Death series highlights a difference between Eve and Roarke that they are going to have to adjust to. Eve's black and white view of the law versus Roarke's moral flexibility causes some conflict between the two of them as Eve investigates a terror organization that has found a way to pass a virus into the minds of those they have judged as criminals who have escaped the justice system. 

The story begins with a phone call from Officer Troy Trueheart who has answered a call for help and who killed the man who was beating a woman and who had killed her boyfriend. Eve rushes to his aide because he is one of her cops and discovers that things aren't adding up. Trueheart's stun shouldn't have killed this drug dealer whose target audience was school children. 

When the dealer's computer is brought to EDD, it contaminates one of the officers assigned to study it which causes him to stun and paralyze McNab and take Feaney hostage before Eve manages to disarm him. Then the virus kills him. Since Eve has recruited Roarke as an "expert consultant, civilian" he gets deeply involved in trying to trace down the virus without killing himself while Eve follows the more traditional police path of investigating.

For Eve, law is god. She is especially outraged by these murders because they are being committed by people who have taken the law into their own hands. She stands for the victims even though they are not nice people. These are people who are exploiting children - a drug dealer who preys on schoolchildren, a child molester, etc.

This episode also begins to put some shades of grey into Eve's black and white view of the world and the law. She has to decided how far she can push the line without becoming what she despises. She has to make compromises for the greater good.

On the personal front, Eve's relationship with Nadine Furst, Channel 75's star reporter gets a lot of play. And Eve's best friend Mavis swirls into the story very briefly to tell Eve that she is pregnant which opens up more strange emotional worlds for both Eve and Roarke.

This was another excellent and entertaining entry into the In Death series.

Favorite Quote:
"Man. God. Roarke."

"An interesting and flattering lineup," Roarke said to his wife's strangled call for help. "Here now, darling." Gently, he eased Peabody's death grip on Eve and with his arm led her into a small waiting area.
I am gradually buying Kindle copies of the In Death books are re-reading them as I go. You can buy your copy here.

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