Promises in Death

December 8, 2008
At the start of bestseller Robb's megablast 28th novel to feature Lt. Eve Dallas (after Salvation in Death
), Eve is dismayed to discover at a Manhattan crime scene that the victim is a friend, Det. Amaryllis Coltraine, who's been fatally zapped by her own stun gun. Dallas uncovers a connection to Coltraine's ex-boyfriend, Alex Ricker, whose father, a notorious criminal serving a life sentence at the Omega Penal Colony, blames Dallas and her husband, Roarke, for his imprisonment. Humorous touches, like the wild poolside wedding shower Dallas must abruptly leave after receiving word of a prime suspect found shot to death, provide relief from the intensity of the murder investigation. In a nice paranormal twist, Dallas uses dream visits with Coltraine to help expose a devious killer whose identity is a stunner. Robb (aka Nora Roberts) has a real gift for keeping this long-running thriller series fresh.

January 1, 2009
Lt. Eve Dallas reaches out from New York 's Homicide Division to outwit a perp sequestered off-planet on the Omega Penal Colony.

Det. Amaryllis Coltraine has fallen in love with Morris, the chief medical examiner, and vice versa. Everyone at Cop Central knows and approves. So when Amaryllis is found dead, the force unites behind Dallas to find out who 's killed her. Even the high-tech techniques available in 2060 disclose little about Amaryllis 's background except that she hailed from Atlanta, where she left a lover she never named, not even to Morris. Eve and her new husband, billionaire supersleuth Roarke, finally pinpoint the lover, antiques dealer Alex Ricker, who happens to be the son of master criminal Max, currently isolated far from Earth in a cage on the Omega Penal Colony. But with security so tight, how did Max eliminate Amaryllis, and why? Could there be a dirty cop who is liaising with Max? Alex, who has nothing good to say about dear old dad, relies on his factotum Rod Sandy, who may have been turned by Max. When Sandy is killed, Eve zeroes in on the cops at Central. Eventually she uncovers a sordid past, a vengeful present and serious territorial lapses.

Like its 29 predecessors (Salvation in Death, 2008, etc.), wry, sexy and facile, just as you 'd expert from Robb 's practiced alter ego, Nora Roberts. The resolution is a bit of a letdown, but Roarke is a great pin-up boy, and you 'll swoon over those cars with vertical thrust.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

January 1, 2009
NYPD Lieutenant Eve Dallas always does her best to solve every one of her cases, but her latest assignment just might be her most difficult yet. Not only was the victim, Amarylis Coltraine, a cop who was killed with her own weapon, but the case also takes on an added personal dimension since Amarylis was Chief Medical Examiner Morris lover, and Morris is one of Eves best friends. When the killer sends Eve a package containing Coltraines badge, weapon, and a taunting note suggesting that she might be next on the list, Eve finds herself trying to untangle a case that may be linked to her own past. All of the familiar ingredients Robbs millions of readers expect to fall neatly into placea cleverly constructed plot, an intriguing cast of secondary characters, and a sexy romance between tough-as-nails Eve and her mysterious billionaire husband Roarkedo so in the 30th gritty, suspenseful addition to Robbs best-selling, futuristic police-procedural series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)