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

Apprentice in Death
Author: J. D. Robb
Narrator: Susan Ericksen
Series: In Death (Book 43)
Publication: Brilliance Audio (September 6, 2016)
Length: 13 hours and 6 minutes

Description: Lieutenant Eve Dallas returns in a fast-paced new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author J. D. Robb.

Nature versus nurture...

The shots came quickly, silently, and with deadly accuracy. Within seconds, three people were dead at Central Park's ice skating rink. The victims: a talented young skater, a doctor, and a teacher. As random as random can be.

Eve Dallas has seen a lot of killers during her time with the NYPSD, but never one like this. After reviewing security videos, it becomes clear that the victims were killed by a sniper firing a tactical laser rifle, who could have been miles away when the trigger was pulled. And though the locations where the shooter could have set up seem endless, the list of people with that particular skill set is finite: police, military, professional killer.

Eve's husband, Roarke, has unlimited resources - and genius - at his disposal. And when his computer program leads Eve to the location of the sniper, she learns a shocking fact: There were two - one older, one younger. Someone is being trained by an expert in the science of killing, and they have an agenda. Central Park was just a warm-up. And as another sniper attack shakes the city to its core, Eve realizes that though we're all shaped by the people around us, there are those who are just born evil...

My Thoughts: Eve's 43rd case begins with a shooting at Central Park's ice-skating rink. Three people are dead - a young woman practicing for an ice-skating troupe, an obstetrician skating for exercise, and a man celebrating his anniversary with his wife by recreating their first date. 

At first there seems to be no connection between the victims and no reason to target any of them individually. They were shot with a high-powered sniper rifle from far away. Fearing a LDSK - long distance serial killer, Eve digs deeper into the lives of the victims while Roarke designs a computer program to track the path of the laser beams and find the killer's nest. 

A very observant hotel desk clerk manages to describe the two suspects when the hotel room used for the shooting is found making Eve one step closer to finding the killers. It's a pair of shooters. One is older the other younger who seems to be related to the older. 

Before they can be identified, there is another shooting. This time it is Times Square that is the target area and five are killed including a young police officer. Eve manages to find a connection and identify the killers - a father-daughter team. 

The father was a former police tactical officer who left the force after his second wife died in a car-pedestrian accident. He's made a target list including anyone he can even loosely connect to the accident in his search for revenge. The list includes the obstetrician she was scheduled to see, the police officer first on the scene, and many more. 

But identifying the perpetrators doesn't mean catching them. The older sacrifices himself to let his daughter get away. But the daughter wants to complete her father's agenda and then start on her own beginning with her stepfather, mother, and stepbrother. 

Her next hit is outside of Madison Square Garden where she kills the lawyer who would take her father's case and seventeen other people. Eve and Roarke are even more anxious at this shooting since Mavis and Leonardo were there so was Sommerset who was using the tickets Roarke already had for the event. 

Besides the police procedural aspects of the story, the story was also concerned with fathers and children and nature versus nurture as Eve reflects on her father and Roarke on Sommerset. And circling everything is Bella's upcoming first birthday party. Bella is a prime example of a child being raised by excellent, nurturing parents. 

This is one of my favorites in this long-running series. The writing style resonates with me. The characters are engaging and, after 42 books, feel like real people with ethics, values, and love. 

I bought this one as a Kindle book in 2022 and an audiobook in 2023. You can buy your copy here.

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

Obsession in Death
Author: J. D. Robb
Narrator: Susan Ericksen
Series: In Death (Book 40)
Publication: Brilliance Audio (February 10, 2015)
Length: 13 hours and 22 minutes

Description: Lieutenant Eve Dallas walks the thin line between love and hate in this fabulous 40th thriller from #1 New York Times bestseller J. D. Robb....

Eve Dallas has solved a lot of high-profile murders for the NYPSD and gotten a lot of media. She - and her billionaire husband - are getting accustomed to being objects of attention, of gossip, of speculation.

But now Eve has become the object of one person's obsession. Someone who finds her extraordinary, and thinks about her every hour of every day. Who believes the two of them have a special relationship. Who would kill for her - again and again....

With a murderer reading meanings into her every move, handling this case will be a delicate - and dangerous - psychological dance. And Eve knows that underneath the worship and admiration, a terrible threat lies in wait. Because the beautiful lieutenant is not at all grateful for these bloody offerings from her "true and loyal friend." And in time, idols always fall....

My Thoughts: Lieutenant Eve Dallas is a NYPSD murder cop. She's really good at her job and has solved some very high-profile cases. She's also married to a gorgeous and mysterious billionaire named Roarke. Putting those things together means that Eve has a much higher profile than she would like. 

Eve's fame has attracted a person who really admires her and wants to be her best friend. Her new best friend has decided to murder people they believe have done Eve wrong. The first victim is a high-profile lawyer. The lawyer defended a man Eve arrested for inventing a device that let him control people's minds which made some of them kill themselves. Once the court case was over, Eve didn't give the lawyer another thought until her new friend decided to murder her. Her friend left a note for her written in the wall with a Sharpie. 

The second victim was a third-rate junkie who accidentally bruised Eve's face when she went to him for some information about a case. Now his body was found impaled by a broken pool cue. Eve's friend has left a note on the wall for her. This one was still written with a Sharpie but was longer and less controlled then the first note. 

Even though they need to investigate each victim, it soon becomes clear that the only thing that connects the murders is Eve's involvement. Eve and her partner Detective Peabody have to search for people who might know about the details of the cases or who might be focused on Eve. 

Eve also has to find a way to protect her friends because her new friend doesn't want any rivals. This brings Eve to a realization of how many friends she now has and makes her wonder how it all happened. Eve life has changed and expanded in many ways since she fell in love with and married Roarke. 

There are lots of references to Eve's earlier cases since this is the 40th book in the series. There are also lots of references to her early life and the way she has overcome her childhood trauma. The romance is also strong in this one. She and Roarke are building unbreakable bonds. In some of the books, there are conflicts as she and Roarke are building their marriage. In this one, she and Roarke are on the same page. 

This was an excellent entry into this long-running series. 

I bought this audiobook December 1, 2023. You can buy your copy here.

Friday Memes: Bad Blood by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

 Happy Friday!

Book Beginnings is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader. She asks that the first sentence is posted along with the author and title of the book and the reader's initial thoughts on the sentence, the book, or anything else it inspires. 

Carrie at Reading Is My Superpower.org also provides a linky for sharing first lines and connecting with others. This meme asks that the chosen books be PG or marked as Mature if they are not. 

Beginning:

Without order, there is chaos.

Without order, there is pain.

Friday 56:

That was what profilers did. We submerged ourselves in the darkness again and again and again.

This week I am spotlighting Bad Blood by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. This is the fourth book in The Naturals series. These are YA mystery stories. I read them years ago and am enjoying this reread. Here is the description from Amazon:

In this stunning conclusion to the popular thriller series, Cassie Hobbes finally has answers about her mom as her and the rest of the Naturals faced off with a secret group of deadly killers.

When Cassie Hobbes joined the FBI's Naturals program, she had one goal: uncover the truth about her mother's murder. But now, everything Cassie thought she knew about what happened that night has been called into question. Her mother is alive, and the people holding her captive are more powerful—and dangerous—than anything the Naturals have faced so far. As Cassie and the team work to uncover the secrets of a group that has been killing in secret for generations, they find themselves racing a ticking clock.

New victims. New betrayals. New secrets.

When the bodies begin piling up, it soon becomes apparent that this time, the Naturals aren't just hunting serial killers.

They're being hunted.

Book Review: Field of Dishonor by David Weber

Field of Dishonor
Author: David Weber
Series: Honor Harrington (Book 4)
Publication: Baen Books (December 15, 2012)

Description: HONOR BETRAYED

The People's Republic of Haven's sneak attack on the Kingdom of Manticore has failed. The Peeps are in disarray, their leaders fighting for power in bloody revolution, and the Royal Manticoran Navy stands victorious.

But Manticore has domestic problems of its own, and success can be more treacherous than defeat for Honor Harrington. Now, trapped at the core of a political crisis she never sought, betrayed by an old and vicious enemy she'd thought vanquished forever, she stands alone

She must fight for justice on a battlefield she never trained for in a private war that offers just two choices: death . . . or a ''victory'' that can end only in dishonor and the loss of all she loves.

My Thoughts: This story concentrates on Honor's relationship with Captain Lord Pavel Young. After his cowardice and desertion on the field of battle that was near the end of the previous book, this book begins with his court martial. But Young has powerful friends and the government needs to appease them if they are going to get the declaration of war against Haven that the need so badly.

An almost hung jury saves Young from being shot but enough was proven to have him cashiered out of the Navy. After his father's death just after the verdict is given, Young becomes the new Lord North Hollow who inherits his father's secrets and position in the House of Lords. But he blames Honor for all his problems and won't be content until she is dead.

Before he gets to Honor though, he decides to make her life terrible by killing Paul Tankersley who is Honor's love and lover. North Hollow hires Denver Summervale to challenge Paul to a duel. Summervale is a cashiered Marine who is a killer for hire who has killed many men on women on the field of honor. 

Honor had been sent to Grayson to get her out from under the massive publicity the court martial has stirred up. When she hears about Paul's death, she is determined to challenge Summervale to a duel and kill him herself. But Honor has friends on her side who get to Summervale and convince him to tell them who hired him. To no one's surprise, the man was hired by North Hollow and Summervale's confession is on tape. Of course, with the confession gotten by less than legal means it is impossible to take the take to law enforcement.

Honor publicly calls out North Hollow and demands that he meet her on the field of honor even though she gets a lot of pressure from the Queen's government and her own superiors to back off. North Hollow's support is still needed in the upcoming war effort. But Honor won't be dissuaded. She feels that the cost to her career is a cost worth paying if it gets justice for Paul and shows North Hollow for the coward he is. 

The story was packed with emotional intensity. Honor's grief for the loss of Paul was very convincingly written.

I bought this story three times - print, Kindle, and audiobook. You can buy your copy here.

Book Review: The Short Victorious War by David Weber

The Short Victorious War
Author: David Weber
Series: Honor Harrington (Book 3)
Publication: Baen Books (January 1, 2002)

Description: The families who rule the People’s Republic of Haven are in trouble. The treasury’s empty, the Proles are restless, and civil war is imminent. But the ruling class knows what they need to keep in power: another short, victorious war to unite the people and fill the treasury once more. It’s a card they’ve played often in the last half-century, always successfully, and all that stands in their way is the Star Kingdom of Manticore and its threadbare allies. Enemies who in the past have always backed down. Only this time the Peeps face something different. This time they’re up against Captain Honor Harrington and a Royal Manticoran Navy that’s prepared to give them a war that’s far from short...and anything but victorious

My Thoughts: The People's Republic of Haven is in trouble. Their economy is tanking because so many of their people are on public assistance. They can only support their economy and the privileges the wealthy enjoy by continually adding new star systems to their Republic. So they have the wonderful idea to start, or pretend to start, a war with Manticore.

Honor Harrington has completed her long complicated recovery from the injuries sustained in the previous book and has been assigned as Flag Captain to a new ship named Nike and sent with a task force to a frontier repair base. The only problem is that that Admiral in charge of the task force doesn't like Honor whom he sees as hot-tempered and reckless which causes some problems for her despite the support of her immediate superior who is also in the Admiral's bad books. 

Since the Peeps are conducting all sorts of feints into neighboring star systems, the Admiral decides that he needs to defend one of the more populous systems and leaves Honor and her boss to defend the repair facility with very little help.

Haven has been secretly watching the whole area with stealth ships and knows when the largest part of the force leaves the repair facility and knows that it is time to take it and bring the war into official existence. It should be easy as their ships and armaments vastly outnumber those left with Honor. But Honor and her boss have done all the tricky planning they can to get their system as safe as it can be and can hope to hold out until help arrives to support them.

Meanwhile on Haven, Rob Pierre is planning a revolution which will take down the current government and put himself and his own supporters in control. And he is planning to use part of the Navy he hates to accomplish his goals. 

This was another exciting episode in the Honor Harrington series. It was filled with action and adventure.

I bought the Kindle copy November 19, 2025. It joins the paperback and audiobook already in my collection. You can buy your copy here.

Book Review: The Honor of the Queen by David Weber

The Honor of the Queen
Author: David Weber
Series: Honor Harrington (Book 2)
Publication: Baen (October 1, 2024)

Description: Book 2 in the internationally best-selling Honor Harrington science fiction series. First time in Trade Paperback!

It’s hard to give peace a chance when the other side regards conquest as the only option and a sneak attack as the best means to that end. That’s why the Kingdom of Manticore needs allies against the Republic of Haven—and the planet Grayson is strategically situated to make a very good ally indeed. But Her Majesty’s Foreign Office overlooked a “minor cultural difference” when they chose Honor Harrington to carry the flag: women on the planet of Grayson are without rank or rights and Honor’s mere presence is an intolerable affront to every male on the planet. At first Honor doesn’t take it personally; where she comes from gender discrimination is barely a historical memory, right up there in significance with fear of the left-handed. But in time such treatment becomes taxing, and she makes plans to withdraw, until Grayson’s fratricidal sister planet attacks without warning. Now, Honor must stay and prevail, not just for her honor, but for her sovereign’s—for the honor of the Queen.

My Thoughts: Honor Harrington is sent with her ship Fearless to support the diplomatic team working for an alliance with Grayson. Her mentor from the academy is the head of the mission. Grayson was founded by religious, anti-technology bigots. They received quite a surprise when they found that they needed technology to survive on the lovely planet they chose. The planet has more than its share of heavy metals that have polluted the land, air and water. 

However, the environment isn't the problem for Honor. The culture is male dominated. Wives are historically chattels. Women don't serve in the military and are under the dominion of their husbands or fathers. She and her female colleagues are treated with disdain. This really tries her patience and puts her nerves on edge.

Grayson is also under constant threat of attack by its neighbors from Masada who were exiled from Grayson centuries earlier because of their religious fanaticism. Masada wants Grayson back and the Apostates killed. To further that goal, they are taking secret help from Manticore's rival Haven. 

Unfortunately, the second in rank in the diplomatic mission is an idiot who believes that Grayson and Masada should just get over their little religious issue in order to take advantages of the benefits of trading with their nearest neighbor. This wouldn't be a problem with Honor's mentor in charge, but when he is killed along with Grayson's head of the Navy in an attack by Masada, Houseman takes charge of the mission.

Honor needs to do something to fulfill her oath to the Queen and honor her mentor's life, but the Grayson military isn't eager to take orders from a woman. She goes over the military's head right to the Protector and manages to save his and his family's lives when Masadan assassins attack them at dinner. Severely injured, Honor needs to fight to protect Grayson even though she is vastly overmatched by the Haven ships hidden among the Masadan. 

This was another engaging space opera filled with politics, battles, and excitement. 

I bought this one. In fact, I bought it at least three times since I have the paperback from before 2008, the Kindle copy, and the Audible copy. You can buy your copy here.

Book Review: On Basilisk Station by David Weber

On Basilisk Station
Author: David Weber
Series: Honor Harrington (Book 1)
Publication: Baen Books (December 21, 2012)

Description: INTRODUCING HONOR HARRINGTON

Having made him look a fool, she's been exiled to Basilisk Station in disgrace and set up for ruin by a superior who hates her.

Her demoralized crew blames her for their ship's humiliating posting to an out-of-the-way picket station.

The aborigines of the system's only habitable planet are smoking homicide-inducing hallucinogens.

Parliament isn't sure it wants to keep the place; the major local industry is smuggling; the merchant cartels want her head; the star-conquering, so-called "Republic" of Haven is Up To Something; and Honor Harrington has a single, over-age light cruiser with an armament that doesn't work to police the entire star system.

But the people out to get her have made one mistake. They've made her mad.

My Thoughts: Honor Harrington finds herself captain to a ship recently "improved" by Horrible Hemphill and with an Executive Officer who resents her youth and that she jumped over him to captain the ship. Her tactical genius lets her win once in the war games designed to test the new weapon on her ship, but further games show the weaknesses of the weapon and her ship is killed again and again.

Having made Hemphill look bad, she is assigned to an out of the way outpost called Basilisk Station. Unknown to her, the People's Republic of Haven has designs on Basilisk Station and its very lucrative gate. But worse than that, Honor finds herself under the command of a man who tried to rape her when she was a midshipman at the naval academy and who was soundly beaten by her and forced to make a public apology. His powerful allies kept him in the Navy, but he has vowed revenge on Honor. 

Lord Pavel Young sees his opportunity for his revenge when Honor arrives. He declares that his ship is in need of vital repairs and leaves her in her single, oddly weaponed ship to protect the area. Basilisk Station is sort of a political football. A substantial percent of the government doesn't want to keep it at all. Its major industry seems to be smuggling. And the only habitable planet has aliens with a Bronze age culture. At least it did until outside influences introduced flintlocks and encouraged the production of a hallucinogen that ramps up aggression. 

Honor isn't going to fail at her command. She works closely with the governor of the planet and clamps down on the smuggling even though it angers the wealthiest man on Manticore. And she figures out Haven's plans for the area which leads to a pitched space battle. 

This was an excellent introduction to a series that has grown into more than 40 books if all the various subseries set in the same world are counted. It is the very definition of space opera filled with larger-than-life characters and fantastic weapons. It has lots and lots of space battles and political maneuvering. The stories are told from multiple viewpoints.

I bought this one before I began keeping track of purchases in 2008. More recently I purchased the Kindle book in 2011 and the audiobook in 2020.  You can buy your copy here or check get it at Baen Books Free Library.

Audiobook Review: Hid from Our Eyes by Julia Spencer-Fleming

Hid from Our Eyes
Author: Julia Spencer-Fleming
Narrator: Suzanne Toren
Series: Clare Ferguson/Russ Van Alstyne (Book 9)
Publication: Macmillan Audio (April 7, 2020)
Length: 13 hours and 37 minutes

Description: This program includes a bonus conversation with the author

New York Times best seller Julia Spencer-Fleming returns to her beloved Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne mystery series with new crimes that span decades in Hid from Our Eyes.

1952. Millers Kill Police Chief Harry McNeil is called to a crime scene where a woman in a party dress has been murdered with no obvious cause of death.

1972. Millers Kill Police Chief Jack Liddle is called to a murder scene of a woman that's very similar to one he worked as a trooper in the '50s. The only difference is this time, they have a suspect. Young Vietnam War veteran Russ van Alstyne found the body while riding his motorcycle and is quickly pegged as the prime focus of the investigation.

Present-day. Millers Kill Police Chief Russ van Alstyne gets a 911 call that a young woman has been found dead in a party dress, the same MO as the crime he was accused of in the '70s. The pressure is on for Russ to solve the murder before he's removed from the case.

Russ will enlist the help of his police squad and Reverend Clare Fergusson, who is already juggling the tasks of being a new mother to her and Russ' baby and running St. Alban's Church, to finally solve these crimes.

Listeners have waited years for this newest book and Julia Spencer-Fleming delivers with the exquisite skill and craftsmanship that have made her such a success.

My Thoughts: In this ninth addition to the Clare Ferguson/Russ Van Alstyne mystery series, Clare and Russ are dealing with lots of new stresses. They are trying to fit being parents of a fussy infant around two very demanding and more-than-full-time jobs.

The town Aldermen want to shut down the local police force and get policing from the State Patrol. And a body of young woman is found on an isolated road which echoes an eerily similar crime from 1972 where Russ was a person of interest. That case was eerily similar to a case in 1952. In each case, an unidentified young woman was found dead with no apparent cause of death.

An unsolved case isn't going to help Russ convince to town to keep its police force. His mother and a strong supporter in Clare's church who are both savvy politicians begin a campaign to save the local force requiring Russ to smooze with anyone who will let him talk. Clare's new intern is a transgender woman who has ties to the rich, summer people who live in the camps that the town police watch over and volunteers her mother to help with the campaign.

Adding to the stress on the police force is that the newest officer - Hadley Knox - has a vindictive ex who is suing her, former officer Kevin Flynn, the police force, and the town for endangering his reputation and planting meth in his suitcase. Unfortunately the accusation is true. Flynn did plant the drugs hoping to get the ex off Hadley's case and protect her and her children. Flynn had moved on to the Syracuse police force after a break-up with Hadley and is currently undercover looking for extremists. He is with the carnival that comes to the fair each year - the same carnival occurring when each of the murders took place.

Meanwhile, Clare is dealing with stress which isn't good for a recovering alcoholic and pain pill user and has a lot of temptation to deal with. A fussy baby and Russ's stresses all weigh heavily on her.

I liked that the story rotated between the cases in 1952, 1972, and the present day. I liked the connections in that a young patrol officer was present in 1952, was the police chief in 1972 and a mentor to Russ and is there in the present case to add his insights. I liked that the cops in all three cases were dedicated to solving the crimes and protecting the people.

This is a great series. I look forward to more - especially since there is something of a cliffhanger ending to this one.

I bought this audiobook August 30, 2025. You can buy your copy here.

Audiobook Review: The Black Wolves of Boston by Wen Spencer

The Black Wolves of Boston
Author: Wen Spencer 
Narrator: Ian Allen Carlsen et al.
Series: The Black Wolves of Boston
Publication: Audible Studios (February 21, 2017)
Length: 18 hours and 15 minutes

Description: Rebuild a life, save a city

Silas Decker had his world destroyed when he was attacked by vampires outside of New Amsterdam. He has rebuilt his life a dozen times in the last 300 years - each time less and less successfully. Now he lives alone, buried under a hoarding habit, struggling to find some reason to wake up with the setting of the sun.

Eloise is a Virtue, pledged to hunting evil. What she doesn't know is how to live alone in a city full of strangers who know nothing about monsters.

Seth is the 16-year old Prince of Boston, ward of the Wolf King. Now he is left in a city that desperately needs his protection with enemies gathering all around.

Joshua believes he is a normal, college-bound high school senior. His life is shattered when he wakes up in a field, covered with blood, and the prom committee scattered in pieces about him like broken dolls.

These four must now come together to unravel a plot by Wickers, witches who gain power from human sacrifices and have the power to turn any human into their puppet. Four people who lost everything struggle to save Boston by saving each other.

My Thoughts: This was a great story about love, friendship and accepting yourself for yourself. Of course, it was also urban fantasy so we had evil Wickers who wanted to take over the werewolf Prince of Boston and make him their puppet.

The story starts with brand new werewolf Joshua being rescued by Decker who is a depressed vampire who is hundreds of years old. Decker has been getting more and more isolated and has been hoarding things to combat his loneliness. He takes Joshua home and they two form a firm friendship.

The story is told from Decker's viewpoint and Joshua's. It is also told from the viewpoint of Seth who is the 16-year-old Prince of Boston who has been in the care of the Wolf King in New York City since his whole family was massacred when a Breach let evil into the world when Seth was thirteen. He wants very much to return to Boston along with his older cousin Jack who is one of the Wolf King's Thanes.

Elise is also a viewpoint character. She is a Virtue whose purpose in life is to live among humans and seek out evil and destroy it. Elise has known Decker all of her life but is so focused on being a Virtue that she only uses him as a tool. Elise, too, is alone and lonely.

The four characters come together to find and defeat the Wickers before they can succeed at their evil plan. Along the way there are a lot of funny moments in this story. Joshua has a tendency to turn into a small wolf pup when he's frightened or when he sneezes. It also has some touching moments as we learn that Seth has been longing for more family and really wants Joshua to be the older brother he thought was lost forever. 

This is a wonderful story filled with characters real enough to step off the page. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

I bought this one July 19, 2021. You can buy your copy here.

Friday Memes: The Black Wolves of Boston by Wen Spencer

 Happy Friday!

Book Beginnings is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader. She asks that the first sentence is posted along with the author and title of the book and the reader's initial thoughts on the sentence, the book, or anything else it inspires. 

Carrie at Reading Is My Superpower.org also provides a linky for sharing first lines and connecting with others. This meme asks that the chosen books be PG or marked as Mature if they are not. 

Beginning:

Joshua really thought it would be easier to catch a rabbit; he was a werewolf, after all. The stupid things, though, could turn on a dime and kept zigging while his body zagged.

Friday 56:

The house had three bathrooms total. Ewan found and used all three without realizing that he was marking his territory.

This week I am spotlighting a reread. I first read The Black Wolves of Boston by Wen Spencer back in 2020. I wanted to refresh my memory before I read the sequel which was recently published. I am choosing the audiobook for this reread. Here's the description from Amazon:

REBUILD A LIFE, SAVE A CITY

Silas Decker had his world destroyed when he was attacked by vampires outside of New Amsterdam. He has rebuilt his life a dozen times in the last three hundred years—each time less and less successfully. Now he lives alone, buried under a hoarding habit, struggling to find some reason to wake up with the setting of the sun.

Eloise is a Virtue, pledged to hunting evil. What she doesn’t know is how to live alone in a city full of strangers who know nothing about monsters.

Seth is the sixteen-year old Prince of Boston, ward of the Wolf King. Now he is left in a city that desperately needs his protection with enemies gathering all around.

Joshua believes he is a normal, college-bound high school senior. His life is shattered when he wakes up in a field, covered with blood, and the prom committee scattered in pieces about him like broken dolls.

These four must now come together to unravel a plot by Wickers, witches who gain power from human sacrifices and have the power to turn any human into their puppet. Four people who lost everything struggle to save Boston by saving each other.

Audiobook Review: One Was a Soldier by Julia Spencer-Fleming

One Was a Soldier
Author: Julia Spencer-Fleming
Narrator: Suzanne Toren
Series: Clare Ferguson/Russ van Alstyne Mysteries (Book 7)
Publication: Blackstone Audio (April 22, 2011)
Length: 17 hours and 31 minutes

Description: At the Millers Kill Community Center, five veterans gather to work on adjusting to life after war. Reverend Clare Fergusson has returned from Iraq with a head full of bad memories she's using alcohol to wipe out. Dr. George Stillman is denying that the head wound he received has left him with something worse than simple migraines. Officer Eric McCrea is battling to keep his constant rage from affecting his life as a cop, and as a father. High school track star Will Ellis is looking for some reason to keep on living after losing both legs to an IED. And down-on-her-luck Tally McNabb has brought home a secret - a fatal one.

Police Chief Russ Van Alstyne just wants Clare to settle down and get married - to him. But when he rules Tally McNabb's death a suicide, Clare sides with the other vets against him. Russ and Clare's unorthodox investigation will uncover a trail of deceit that runs from their tiny Adirondack town to the upper ranks of the Army, and from the waters of the Millers Kill to the unforgiving streets of Baghdad.

My Thoughts: The seventh book in the Clare Ferguson/Russ Van Alstyne mysteries sees Clare returned from Iraq and dealing with what she saw by abusing pills and alcohol. When one of her parishioners comes back from war having lost both legs to an IED, she convinces him to take part in a veteran's support group. He will if she will. The two find Dr. George Stillman there and Officer Eric McCrea from the Millers Kill police force and a young woman named Tally McNabb. Trip Stillman had a traumatic brain injury that he is claiming to be just migraines. McCrea is having trouble dealing with the constant anger that fills his life. And Tally is keeping a secret about her tour in Iraq.

When Tally is found dead by her swimming pool, Russ and most of the evidence declares it a suicide. Clare and her fellow veterans from the support group are so sure and begin an investigation. Tally was working as an accountant for Opperman's business which, besides the resort, does contracting work for the government in Iraq. And it looks like she came home with a lot of cash money - like a million dollars. 

Besides the stress of planning her wedding to Russ with more than she needs of her mother's "help," Clare has the usual stresses of her ministry and her investigation into Tally's death. No wonder she's hiding her dependence on pills and alcohol from everyone including Russ. 

I enjoyed this story. It was compelling listening. I was so involved in the problems of all of the vets in the support group and so hoping that they could find peace. I also enjoyed catching up on other members of the Millers Kill police force too. 

I got this one from Audible Plus. You can buy your copy here.

Audiobook Review: A Monstrous Regiment of Women by Laurie R. King

A Monstrous Regiment of Women
Author: Laurie R. King
Narrator: Jenny Sterlin
Series: Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes (Book 2)
Publication: Macmillan Audio (February 11, 2014)
Length: 11 hours and 43 minutes

Description: It is 1921 and Mary Russell—Sherlock Holmes's brilliant apprentice, now an Oxford graduate with a degree in theology—is on the verge of acquiring a sizable inheritance. Independent at last, with a passion for divinity and detective work, her most baffling mystery may now involve Holmes and the burgeoning of a deeper affection between herself and the retired detective. Russell's attentions turn to the New Temple of God and its leader, Margery Childe, a charismatic suffragette and a mystic, whose draw on the young theology scholar is irresistible. But when four bluestockings from the Temple turn up dead shortly after changing their wills, could sins of a capital nature be afoot? Holmes and Russell investigate, as their partnership takes a surprising turn in A Monstrous Regiment of Women by Laurie R. King.

My Thoughts: This is the second book in the Sherlock Holmes/Mary Russell series. It is 1921. Mary has graduated from Oxford with theology and chemistry degrees. She has also attained her majority and gained control of her fortune. She has kicked out her aunt and is remodeling her farmhouse. She is also in a quandary about her relationship with Holmes.

While wandering about London, she encounters Lady Veronica Beaconsfield who was a lodging mate at Oxford. They lost touch when Mary had to disappear as a result of a previous case. Ronnie is working at Good Works in London. She introduces Mary to Margery Childe and her New Temple of God. Mary is intrigued by Margery's theology.

But questions arise when she learns that three well-to-do young women has died in suspicious circumstances after leaving substantial sums of money to the New Temple of God. Mary investigates with a bit of assistance from Holmes who is busy helping Mary with another problem. Ronnie's fiancé has come back from World War I greatly changed and addicted to heroin. Mary asks Sherlock for help.

Then Ronnie is almost killed in what looks at first like an accident and Mary is also almost killed when she's walking with Margery. Mary manages to take down the villain and save herself and Margery. But then Mary is kidnapped. She's held for a number of days by criminals who attempt to addict her to heroin before Sherlock manages to find and rescue her. 

This was excellent historical fiction filled with all sorts of period details. I love the relationship between Mary and Holmes.

I bought this one April 11, 2021. You can buy your copy here.

Audiobook Review: I Shall Not Want by Julia Spencer Fleming

I Shall Not Want
Author: Julia Spencer-Fleming
Narrator: Suzanne Toren
Series: Ferguson/Van Alstyne Mysteries (Book 6)
Publication: Blackstone Audio (August 14, 2015)
Length: 14 hours and 46 minutes

Description: In the searing conclusion to All Mortal Flesh, Russ' balance between duty and desire was broken by his wife's tragic death. Now Russ and Episcopal priest Clare Fergusson are separated by a wall of guilt and grief. When a Mexican farmhand stumbles over a Latino man killed with a single shot to the back of his head, Clare is drawn into the investigation. The discovery of two more bodies ignites fears that a serial killer is loose in the rural town while Russ is plagued by the media hysteria, conflict within the police department, and a series of baffling assaults. Throughout the escalating tensions, he and Clare find themselves seeking each other out even as they intend to keep distant.

My Thoughts: Clare and Russ are still each dealing with grief and guilt. Russ's wife's death has made things worse between them. When a body of a young Latino man is found by an illegal farm worker working on Russ's sister's new dairy farm, Clare gets immediately involved in the plight of the illegals. Then two more bodies are found. 

Russ's new deputy gets a lot of page time in this episode. She is Hadley Knox who is a California transplant who has come back to Millers Kill with her children to live with her grandfather who is Clare's sexton. She's broke and takes a job with the police because it is steady work with benefits. She doesn't have any particular call to law enforcement. 

Hadley is an attractive woman and the previous low man on the police department payroll Kevin Flynn falls for her immediately. She is less than interested seeing their ten-year age difference as a real barrier. Besides which, she isn't interested in finding a man. One skill that she does bring to the department that is especially useful is that she is fluent in Spanish which really helps with the current murder case.

Clare is adjusting to being a weekend warrior as she serves in the National Guard, but that doesn't stop her setting up initiatives to work with the Latino farm laborers who have recently come to her attention. That also means that she is right in the middle of the murder investigations too. 

A serious injury to Russ rearranges both Russ and Clare's attitudes in regard to each other, but just when things seem to be resolving between the two of them, Clare's National Guard unit is deployed to Iraq. Now they are facing a year-long separation and thus ends book 6 in the Clare Ferguson/Russ Van Alstyne mystery series. 

I bought this one from Chirp January 4, 2024. You can buy your copy here.

Audiobook Review: All Mortal Flesh by Julia Spencer-Fleming

All Mortal Flesh
Author: Julia Spencer-Fleming
Narrator: Suzanne Toren
Series: Ferguson/Van Alstyne Mysteries (Book 5)
Publication: Blackstone Audio (March 4, 2010)
Length: 13 hours and 41 minutes

Description: Police Chief Russ van Alstyne doesn't expect any gossip in the town about his carefully contained feelings for the Reverend Clare Fergusson. So he certainly doesn't expect to be the prime suspect when his wife is found murdered in their own home. To the state police, it's an open-and-shut-case of a disaffected husband, silencing first his wife, then the investigation he controls.

But nothing is as it seems in the small Adirondack town of Millers Kill, where betrayal twists old friendships and evil waits inside white-clapboard farmhouses. Russ and Clare struggle against the reach of the law, the authority of the church, and their own guilty hearts in All Mortal Flesh.

My Thoughts: Russ van Alstyne becomes the prime suspect when his wife Linda is found murdered and mutilated in their kitchen. They were going through marital difficulties, and she had kicked him out of their house. He's been living with his mother and has no alibi for the time period of his wife's death.

He can hardly tell anyone that he and Clare Ferguson had gotten together at the isolated cabin where she had gone for a retreat to discuss what they plan to do about their relationship. Each is in love with the other, but Russ's marriage is definitely an impediment to them having any sort of public relationship. Clare is feeling guilty about potentially breaking up Russ's marriage. 

Clare is also dealing with being assigned a new deacon whom she views as the bishop's watchdog and whose goal is to keep Clare on the straight and narrow. Even though Clare and Russ had decided to keep apart, Clare has to be there when her friend needs her support. 

But an overzealous deputy has called in the State Police which takes the investigation out of the local's control. The imported investigator is eager to make a case for Russ and the murderer. Russ is forced to do his investigating on the down low. 

Things take quite a twist when it is discovered that the body on Russ's kitchen floor is not Linda, but rather a pet sitter who was hired to look after Linda's new cat. Of course, that means that Linda is still missing and the suspicion shifts to Clare who might have had motive for killing Linda to clear her way to Russ.

This was a very emotional and action-packed episode in this series. It was an emotional roller coaster for both Clare and Russ. The mystery part of the story was well-done too. 

I bought this one from Chirp January 4, 2024. You can buy your copy here.

Audiobook Review: To Darkness and to Death by Julia Spencer-Fleming

To Darkness and to Death
Author: Julia Spencer-Fleming
Narrator: Suzanne Toren
Series: Ferguson/Van Alstyne Mysteries (Book 4)
Publication: Blackstone Audio (December 13, 2018)
Length: 14 hours and 5 minutes

Description: In the small Adirondack town of Millers Kill, an old lumberman sits in the dark with his gun across his knees. Not far away, an unemployed logger sleeps off his bender from the night before. The owner of the town's last paper mill tosses in his bed. And a young woman, one of three heirs to the 250,000-acre Great Camp, wakes alone in darkness, bound and gagged.

Chief of police Russ Van Alstyne wants nothing more than a quiet day of hunting in the mountains on his 50th birthday. His wife needs to have the town's new luxury resort ready for its gala opening night. The Reverend Clare Fergusson expects to spend the day getting St. Alban's Church ready for the bishop's annual visit. Her long-distance suitor from New York expects some answers about their relationship during his weekend in town.

In Millers Kill, where everyone knows everyone and all are part of an interconnected web of blood or acquaintance, one person's troubles have a way of ensnaring others. What begins as a simple case of a woman lost in the woods leads to a tangle of revenge, blackmail, assault, kidnapping, and murder. As the hours tick by, Russ and Clare struggle to make sense of their town's plunge into chaos - and their own chaotic emotions.

Something terrible waits in the ice-rimed mountains cradling Millers Kill. Something that won't be content with just one death - or two.

In To Darkness and to Death, Julia Spencer-Fleming continues her moving story of the way a small town, as well as a great city, can harbor evil, and the struggle of two honest people to deal with the ever-present threat of their feelings for one another.

My Thoughts: It's Russ's fiftieth birthday and he's hunting with a friend with the new gun his wife Linda gave him. Linda is busy finishing her drapery order before the new resort opens. Clare is supposed to be preparing for the bishop's annual visit but gets called out by search-and-rescue to help locate a missing young woman. 

In the background to all of this is the pending sale of a 250-thousand acre Great Camp. The missing woman is one of three heirs who should be getting ready to sign the paperwork selling the camp and putting it into a nature conservancy. 

Closing the camp to logging has an impact on many of the locals including Russ's hunting companion who is being forced into retirement and the closure of his logging company and a young man named Randy who is one of his former employees and is now jobless. The hunting buddy is especially impacted because his daughter works for the conservancy that is putting him out of business. The owner of the local papermill is also greatly affected since it will mean closing his five-generation family business. 

When the hunting companion's daughter is found badly beaten and near to death on a logging road near the camp, it is first thought that she was the missing woman the search-and-rescue had been called out to find. 

This was a twisty and engaging story filled with villains who are both stupid and self-serving. And in the background, Russ and Clare are trying to find the honorable thing to do about their relationship. They are in love but have other promises that get in the way of them being together in Russ's case or forming a new relationship in Clare's.

Both the twisty mystery and the equally twisty relationship issues kept me listening long into the night. 

I bought this one from Chirp January 4, 2024. You can buy your copy here.

Audiobook Review: Out of the Deep I Cry by Julia Spencer-Fleming

Out of the Deep I Cry
Author: Julia Spencer-Fleming
Narrator: Suzanne Torren
Series: Fergusson/Van Alstyne Mysteries (Book 3)
Publication: Blackstone Audio (August 28, 2015
Length: 15 hours and 1 minute

Description: When the local doctor disappears from the small town of Millers Kill, New York, it doesn't take long for the gossip mongers to start insinuating foul play. Amid escalating suspicions that he was "disposed of" due to his ongoing fight to prevent authorities from cutting his clinic's funding, Episcopal priest Clare Fergusson and police chief Russ van Alstyne are enlisted to investigate. Neither could have bargained for what they discover, however, as they pursue an investigation that takes them deep into the past - to the Jazz Age, Prohibition, and the Great Depression - and to a series of sordid and horrifying secrets one family will risk everything to keep hidden.

My Thoughts: It begins with a confrontation at the local free clinic when an anti-vaxxer confronts the doctor blaming a vaccine for her son's autism. Clare just happens to be passing by on her way to volunteer at the local historical society for Lent. 

Then a leak in the churches roof leads to an immediate need for funding. One of the church's board members suggests liquidating a trust that she has been managing from her mother's inheritance. The only problem is that the earnings from the trust have been supporting that same free clinic as a memorial to the board member's father who disappeared in 1930. 

Then the doctor disappears after a confrontation with the anti-vaxxer and the hunt is on to find him. With Clare certain that the anti-vaxxer had nothing to do with the disappearance despite being the last to see the doctor and Russ investigating, the two are thrown together more than they should be since they are already denying their love for each other despite his wife and her vows. 

There were numerous flashbacks to the events that led to the formation of the trust and the lives of the board member's parents which explain where the money came from and how it came to be that their four young children died of diphtheria. 

This was an excellent entry into the series. I absolutely hurt for Clare and Russ and the difficult choices that they have to make in their personal lives. I also enjoyed the mysteries of the doctor's disappearance and the disappearance of the board member's father. 

I bought this one from Chirp January 4, 2024. You can buy your copy here.

Audiobook Review: The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King

The Beekeeper's Apprentice
Author: Laurie R. King
Narrator: Jennie Sterlin
Series: Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes (Book 1)
Publication: Macmillan Audio (January 10, 2014)
Length: 13 hours and 26 minutes

Description: An Agatha Award Best Novel Nominee Named One of the Century's Best 100 Mysteries by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association

In 1915, Sherlock Holmes is retired and quietly engaged in the study of honeybees in Sussex when a young woman literally stumbles onto him on the Sussex Downs. Fifteen years old, gawky, egotistical, and recently orphaned, the young Mary Russell displays an intellect to impress even Sherlock Holmes. Under his reluctant tutelage, this very modern, twentieth-century woman proves a deft protégée and a fitting partner for the Victorian detective. They are soon called to Wales to help Scotland Yard find the kidnapped daughter of an American senator, a case of international significance with clues that dip deep into Holmes's past. Full of brilliant deduction, disguises, and danger, The Beekeeper's Apprentice, the first book of the Mary Russell–Sherlock Holmes mysteries, is "remarkably beguiling" (The Boston Globe).

This program includes a Preface read by the author.

My Thoughts: This is the first book in what is currently a 19-book series. It introduces 15-year-old Mary Russell who becomes a protégée of a seemingly retired Sherlock Holmes. She literally stumbles over him while walking and reading. 

Mary is a wonderfully complex character. She's very bright and somewhat arrogant about it. She's an orphan under the care of a despised and uncaring aunt. She's determined to become a scholar at Oxford where she plans to study theology. She's almost crippled by grief at the deaths of her parents and brother in a car accident which gravely injured her but which she survived. 

Sherlock sees a mind he admires. He is determined to tutor her to become a detective. 

The story takes place over about four years. It is told in sections aligning to Mary's journey to become Sherlock's partner. From her earliest investigations into the theft of some hams to the kidnapping of an American Senator's daughter to a complex plot designed to bring Sherlock Holmes down hatched by an enemy out of Sherlock's past, Mary grows from apprentice to partner. 

The story is filled with rich, historical detail. 1915 was a sort of watershed year which changed society and attitudes. Mary is a modern young 20th-century woman. Holmes is a Victorian gentleman. The way they changed each other is a focus of the story even beyond the various mysteries.  

This audiobook was produced at the twentieth anniversary of the book's first publication and includes a preface read by the author. The rest of the story is ably read by Jenny Sterlin. I have read this book a number of times and found something new each time. 

I bought this one April 8, 2021. You can buy your copy here.

Audiobook Review: New York to Dallas by J. D. Robb

New York to Dallas
Author: J. D. Robb
Narrator: Susan Erickson
Series: In Death (Book 33)
Publication: Brilliance Audio (September 13, 2011)
Length: 14 hours and 17 minutes

Description: It was one of Eve Dallas’s earliest takedowns, back in her uniform days. A monster named Isaac McQueen had been abducting young victims and leaving them scarred in both mind and body. Thanks to Eve, he wound up where he belonged, removed from civilized society in Rikers. But he’s not behind bars anymore.

After his escape, McQueen has two things in mind. One is to take up where he left off, preying on the young and innocent - when necessary, with the help of a female partner all too willing to be manipulated and to aid and abet his crimes. His other goal: to get revenge on the woman who stopped him all those years ago, now a high-profile lieutenant in the NYPSD and married to one of the city’s richest men.

Commanding Eve’s attention with a chilling and brazen crime, McQueen sets off the chase - forcing Eve down a road marked with blood and tears, a road that eventually leads southwest to Dallas, Texas, the home Eve fled long ago. And each new twist brings her closer to the harrowing memory of when she wasn’t a hardened detective but a vulnerable girl just like McQueen’s innocent prey. As her husband, Roarke, tries to rescue her from the nightmares that claw at her mind, and her partner, Peabody, doggedly works to support her, Eve must confront - and call upon - the darkest parts of her own soul in order to survive.

My Thoughts: NEW YORK TO DALLAS is the 33rd book in the In Death series and is one of the most emotionally intense episodes. 

The story begins with a case that she worked when she was a rookie. Isaac McQueen was a violent pedophile who has imprisoned more than twenty young girls in his apartment. Eve stumbles onto the situation when she is knocking on doors looking for witnesses to a mugging which resulted in death. McQueen was convicted of a number of crimes and sentenced to Rikers Island. The situation caused Eve to open the door a little bit to her past which she thought she had successfully buried.

At least ten years have passed, Eve has become a decorated Homicide Lieutenant, fallen in love, married Roarke, and uncovered more of the past she had buried. But now McQueen has escaped from prison leaving a dead guard behind and wants a rematch with Eve.

He moves his crimes to Dallas where he abducts one of his previous victims. Eve has to leave her comfortable setting and return to Dallas. Dallas holds only horrible memories for her. It was in Dallas that she killed her abusive father while he was raping her. She was nine. Found wandering and without any memory of her past, she was placed in the foster care system and name Eve Dallas by a social worker. 

Returning to Dallas triggers the nightmares that she thought she had conquered and flashbacks to a time when she was abused and raped by her father. But this time she's not alone. Not only is Roarke there with her to help and support her, but Dr. Mira has come too. Mira has gradually grown through the books to be almost a mother-figure to Eve. This is essential in this case because McQueen has a partner who just happens who has ties to Eve. 

And, besides Eve, McQueen is hunting for a new "bad girl" - a young, innocent thirteen-year-old girl. 

This was an excellent story. The relationship between Eve and Roarke is one of the best romantic pairings that I have ever read. 

I bought this one on sale from Audible December 1, 2023. I bought the hardcover August 15, 2011. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Treachery in Death by J. D. Robb

Treachery in Death
Author: J. D. Robb
Narrator: Susan Erickson
Series: In Death (Book 32)
Publication: Brilliance Audio (February 22, 2011)
Length: 13 hours and 38 minutes

Description: In a New York City fifty years in the future, Detective Eve Dallas tracks down those who break the law - including the ones sworn to uphold it.

Eve Dallas and her partner, Peabody, are following up on a brutal, senseless crime - an elderly grocery owner killed by three stoned punks for nothing more than kicks and snacks. And for the first time, Peabody is primary detective on the case, which means she has to get used to a new level of authority and responsibility. Good thing she learned the ropes from a master like Eve.

But after rounding up the perps, Peabody stumbles upon a much trickier situation. Determined to start working out as hard as she grills suspects, she chooses to do it at the old, rarely-used gym at Central. After a grueling workout, she squeezes into one of the narrow shower stalls, happy to have the place to herself. Just after she shuts the water off, the gym door clatters open - and while she cringes inside the stall, trying not to make a sound, Peabody overhears two fellow officers, Garnet and Oberman, arguing. References are made to delivering product, and a house in the islands, and someone named Keener who’s supposed to look like an OD. It doesn’t take long for a naked and vulnerable Peabody to realize that both officers are crooked - guilty not just of corruption but of murder as well. Fortunately, the two clear out of the locker room without realizing there was a witness.

Eve Dallas may have trained Peabody well - but this is too dangerous for one person to take on alone. Now Peabody, Eve, and her husband, Roarke, must try to get the hard evidence they need to bring the dirty cops down - knowing all the while that the two have already killed to keep their secret, and are no doubt willing to do it again.

My Thoughts: This is the 32nd book in the In Death series. It begins as a simple police procedural. Eve and Peabody are called to a Mom and Pop convenience store because three high patrons have murdered the elderly proprietor. Eve makes Peabody the Primary on the case, and it is quickly solved.

Afterwards, Peabody is working out in a seldom-used gym at Central because Eve has told her she needs to be lighter on her feet to chase down criminals. While showering, she overhears an angry conversation between two people that indicates that there is police corruption going on that has led to murder. 

Shaken, Peabody goes to Eve at home to tell her what she overheard. She is shaken and frightened since she knows she came within moments of being discovered and killed. Eve takes charge. First, they need to find the body of the murdered junkie and claim the case for Eve and Homicide. Then they need to find evidence to arrest the dirty Lieutenant of the Illegals Division. 

Since the Lieutenant is the only daughter of a legend in the Department, Eve has to keep her investigation quiet. Renee Oberman has managed to corrupt most of her department and has tentacles in many other departments. Eve calls in only people she knows she can trust. Feeney and McNab will handle the electronics. Lieutenant Webster will represent Internal Affairs. Mira and Commander Whitney have roles to play. And Roarke will be there to help with the electronics, find the hidden financial details, and support Eve in any possible way. Even Mavis and baby Bella have roles to play in this one. 

Besides the police procedural, this is a story about fathers and their children and what it means to have a leadership role. Eve and Roarke didn't hit the jackpot with their birth fathers but the men who mentored them more than filled the roles. Feeney for Eve and Sommerset for Roarke. There was a stark contrast between the way Eve runs Homicide and the respect she has from her detectives and officers and the way Oberman runs Illegals. 

This was an excellent story. It allowed Peabody to shine and included many favorite characters from earlier books in the series. I missed Nadine Furst's presence since she was only mentioned near the end but enjoyed the cameo from Mavis and Bella. 

I bought this audiobook December 1, 2023. I bought the book when it was released in 2011. You can buy your copy here.

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.