Audiobook Review: Fantasy in Death by J. D. Robb

Fantasy in Death
Author: J. D. Robb
Narrator: Susan Erickson
Series: In Death (Book 30)
Publication: Brilliance Audio (February 17, 2010)
Length: 12 hours and 50 minutes

Description: Bart Minnock, founder of the computer gaming giant U-Play, enters his private playroom, and eagerly can’t wait to lose himself in an imaginary world, to play the role of a sword-wielding warrior king, in his company’s latest top-secret project, Fantastical.

The next morning, he is found in the same locked room, in a pool of blood, his head separated from his body. It is the most puzzling case Eve Dallas has ever faced, and it is not a game.

Lt. Eve Dallas is having as much trouble figuring out how Bart Minnock was murdered as who did the murdering. The victim’s girlfriend seems sincerely grief-stricken, and his quirky-but-brilliant partners at U-Play appear shocked as well. No one seemed to have a problem with the enthusiastic, high-spirited millionaire of course, success can attract jealousy, and gaming, like any business, has its fierce rivalries and dirty tricks—as Eve’s husband, Roarke, one of U-Play’s competitors, knows well. But Minnock was not naïve, and he knew how to fight back in the real world as well as the virtual one.

Eve and her team are about to enter the next level of police work, in a world where fantasy is the ultimate seduction—and the price of defeat is death.

My Thoughts: This 30th book in the In Death series is a futuristic locked room puzzle for homicide Lieutenant Eve Dallas and her team. Bart Minnock is the founder of a computer gaming company. He comes home with a new game that his company is developing, enters his holoroom to play it, and is found the next morning with his head cut off. 

This is Eve's case, and it is a complex one. There is no evidence that anyone was with Bart. His very good security shows that he was alone in his apartment. And the game can't be tested because a failsafe destroys it if anyone but the person to who started it tries to stop it. 

Bart had three partners in his gaming company. Roarke had mentored all of them as they were setting up their business. Roarke Industries also has fingers in the gaming business and they're working on a similar new game. Roarke is very involved in the case both in his role as "expert civilian consultant" and tech geek.

And while Eve and Roarke are trying to figure out what happened to Bart, Nadine Furst is getting ready for the publication of her new book chronicling one of Eve's earlier cases. Eve and Roarke have to attend the huge party that is going along with the book launch. 

This was an excellent addition to a long-running series. I enjoy seeing Eve and Roarke's marriage grow as they get to know each other more and more. I also like the way Eve's circle of friends has expanded through the course of the series. This was tilted especially to the science fiction end of the spectrum because of the gaming and hologram technology. 

I bought this audiobook December 1, 2023. I bought the hardcover in 2010. You can buy your copy here.