Echoes in Death

Starred review from November 28, 2016
Bestseller Robb (aka Nora Roberts) is not only prolific but consistently inventive, entertaining, and clever in her crime series set in a near-future New York City, as shown by the stunning 44th entry (after 2016’s Apprentice in Death). One cold winter night, Lt. Eve Dallas and her husband, Roarke, encounter a naked, dazed, and bruised young woman wandering a Manhattan street. They take her to a hospital, where they learn that the victim has been raped; a fingerprint analysis identifies her as Daphne Strazza, the wife of prominent surgeon Anthony Strazza. When Eve and Roarke enter the Strazzas’ elegant townhome, they find Anthony slain in the bedroom. Eve soon learns of two similar cases, and she and her police team—aided by Roarke, the owner and CEO of Roarke Industries, and psychiatrist Charlotte Mira—begin a laborious process of finding commonalities that identify a pool of suspects and more potential victims while creating a profile of the perpetrator. When the attacker strikes again, Eve redoubles her efforts. Just when Eve appears to have everything sewn up, Robb delivers a final, devastating twist. 750,000 first printing. Agent: Amy Berkower, Writers House.

December 1, 2016
The winter of 2061 finds New York still with no cure for blizzards, or for serial felonies.Both the forensic evidence and the testimony of Daphne Strazza--whom Lt. Eve Dallas (Apprentice in Death, 2016, etc.) runs into, wandering the streets naked and dazed, while Eve's on her way home from a charity ball--indicate that the attack that left Daphne's husband, noted surgeon Anthony Strazza, dead was a home invasion following the Strazzas' own party that went wrong when Dr. Strazza loosened the bonds that held him a helpless victim to his wife's rape and launched himself at the invader. Looking closer, however, Eve realizes that the only way for the perp to have breached the Strazzas' security was to arrive with the people of Jacko's Caterers or the equipment suppliers of Loan Star Rentals. While Eve's busy narrowing the field of suspects, her sidekick, Detective Amelia Peabody, is multiplying the victims. It seems that Rosa and Neville Patrick endured a remarkably similar home invasion six months ago, and Lori and Ira Brinkman another one in November. Now that the invader, who seems less interested in stealing valuables than in dressing in ghoulish costumes and humiliating his victims, has tasted blood, Eve is convinced he'll turn up the heat, and so he does. Will Eve work her way through interviewing all the suspects and potential victims to confront the killer before the first robin of spring? Robb knows her audience will be highly sympathetic to a police heroine who has to walk a crime scene in uncomfortably fashionable stiletto heels, but along the winding trail to the easily spotted villain, she's not afraid to throw in some descriptions that will earn this installment an R for serious sexual violence.

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January 1, 2017
Late one night, while NYPD lieutenant Eve Dallas and her billionaire businessman husband, Roarke, are returning home from a swanky party, they spot a bloody, naked, and extremely traumatized woman walking in the street. Once Eve and Roarke get the woman to the nearest hospital, they discover she is Daphne Strazza, trophy wife of successful surgeon Dr. Anthony Strazza. When Eve and her team arrive at the Strazzas' home, they find the doctor's body in the couple's bedroom suite. At first glance, it seems as though the Strazzas are the victims of a burglary gone terribly wrong. But once Eve digs deeper into the case, she discovers a pattern of crimes perpetuated by a twisted, masked killer, who seems to be obsessed with New York City's wealthy couples. The millions of Eve Dallas fans worried about Robb's (Nora Roberts) much ballyhooed switch to a new publisher can breathe a sigh of relief since the author's latest tautly constructed entry is every bit as addictively readable as the previous 43 installments in this highly entertaining series.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: With a 750,000 print run and a major national print and online publicity campaign, the publisher is ensuring that Robb's latest attains its usual number-one spot on the best-seller lists.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)