REVIEW: Devoted in Death by JD Robb
Dear JD Robb,
I’m an unabashed fan of the In Death series. This is book 41 and I’m still not sick of it. In the past few years, each book has tended to have one of two possible foci. I call them the more police procedural books or the more “personal” books. They’re all police procedurals of course but some are more focused on Eve and Roarke and their close friends and others put the spotlight on something outside their circle. While I like all of the books, I tend to enjoy the more personal ones the best. So Devoted in Death is a bit of a surprise to me in that it is what I’d call a more procedural book and I was riveted the entire time. I bought the audiobook and started listening but became impatient (in the evenings I can’t just sit and listen, that’s my reading time) so I went and bought the book (in Australia – as per the pictured cover – there is no hardback release, just a trade paperback and I can get them from KMart for $16 – which, here, is cheap) and switched between reading and listening depending on what else was going on. I knocked the whole thing off in about 36 hours.
The calendar has finally turned to 2061 (progress!) and Eve and Roarke have just got back from a brief tropical island holiday. Her first day back on the job, Eve is called out early in the morning to an alley where a dead body has been dumped. It is apparent the victim has been tortured and killed elsewhere and then transported to the dump site. At first, it appears the crime may have a personal motivation but the focus of the investigation quickly turns to it being a random attack and the killers (there are two) are a romantic pair on a months-long spree of torture and death.
Unlike many of the In Death books (but like every episode ever of Columbo), the reader knows who the guilty parties are from the beginning – in fact, their beginning is told in the opening scene of the novel. So there’s really no mystery to the story.
When another victim, Jayla Campbell, is taken, Eve and her team are in a race against the clock to identify and locate the killers before it’s too late to save her life. The entire book takes place in less than a week (so there’s plenty of 2061 left for the next 10+ books) and the pace is cracking from the start.
A word of warning for the sensitive and/or squeamish (neither of those are perjoratives by the way): the violence in this book is extreme. These killers abduct and torture their victims over a couple (or more) days and the victims suffer terrible agony. The description of the injuries when Eve and then Morris were doing their examination of the dead body at the beginning of the book was hard to hear. (I find it more challenging to listen to graphic violence than read – I think that’s because I can skim over in print but I can’t on audio. Also the narrator, Susan Ericksen, is excellent so there is extra emotion in the words just from her performance, as well as what I bring to it myself.) There are some sections from Jayla’s POV and while they don’t go into tremendous detail, there is enough to make it upsetting. The reader, knowing the killers’ MO, knows what it means when Jayla thinks about how they have “hurt” her. Also, although sexual violence has not previously been a feature, these killers are “evolving” and so I must put in a Trigger Warning for rape. It’s not graphic and it’s not the worst of what they do, but it’s there.
I suppose the violence in the book could be considered, at least at times, to verge on torture porn. It is very violent. I can’t say whether it was “unnecessary’ though. These are really evil killers and there are really evil people out there who do horrible, awful things so I expect to see that represented in fiction. That said, for readers who prefer their police procedurals on the cosier side, you may want to skip this one.
The killers are from Oklahoma and Texas respectively and they are represented as redneck, low-rent and vicious (although the latter has nothing to do with where they’re from). However, Eve gets some help from an Arkansas police deputy and he is represented as very clever, caring and dedicated. Other Oklahoma, Tennessee, Arkansas characters pepper the book. I think, all things considered, it falls out that the locals don’t come out looking all that great; there is definitely some stereotyping going on, but it is not entirely one-sided. I can’t really comment on how problematic this representation is. I think it might be a big issue to some readers; that’s the best I can do with it.
There isn’t a lot of romance in the story. Eve and Roarke have a fight at one point and make up (which was nice) but Roarke himself isn’t in the story all that much. On the one hand, I appreciated that Roarke doesn’t have to be in on every single thing that goes on and on the other I kind of missed him. Contrary I know.
You always do this thing where you get me to care about characters very quickly. I cared about Dorian Kuper even though it was too late for him as soon as I “met” him. I cared about Jayla Campbell and ached for what she was going through. I had to keep reading (or listening) to find out what happened to her. The suspense of this book is brilliant. It was tense and urgent almost the whole time because the stakes are so high.
Many of Eve’s friends and colleagues appear in the story and it’s always nice to catch up with them. I thought the (very minor) subplot about Morris was left hanging but I enjoyed Baxter’s angst about Trueheart’s upcoming detective’s exam.
As a page-turning suspense thriller, this book gets an A- from me but as a romantic suspense? It was a little light (well, very light) on the romance so I’m going with a B+. The violence is heavy going it times but it really is a cracker of a read.
Regards,
Kaetrin
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I’m a huge fan of the In Death series too. Loved your review and can’t wait to listen to this. I enjoy the audio versions because of narrator Susan Ericksen. When I think of Eve Dallas I automatically hear Susan’s voice. I’m a bit sad about Roarke not being in the story very much.
It was such a juxtaposition. While there was rather graphic violence, the scenes without the killers and victim were, for lack of any better word, cozy.
I think I’m 20 books behind in this serious lol I should probably get back to it. I miss the characters and need to get caught back up with them.
I love this series overall. While I enjoyed this book while reading it, I feel it was a middle-of-the-road entry in the series. So many of the books feature graphic violence I didn’t think this one was any more graphic than previous books, though some are tougher to read than others.
It’s sitting on my desk right now as I type. I’m feeling rather stressed and murderous, so your review bumped it up to the top of the pile.
Devoted in Death was a huge disappointment to me. I almost gave up out of boredom.
Like you, I was pulled in by Jayla’s fate and the violence was almost a bit too much for me. I did enjoy the story and read it very quickly – totally engrossed.
If you thought this book was graphic, don’t venture back to “Thankless in Death.” I thought it was far more graphic in torture depiction than this, and it’s the first ID book I haven’t re-read as a result.
As someone originally from the Deep South, I wasn’t bothered by the depictions in this story. Stereotypes, unfortunately, exist for a reason. I highly enjoyed Santiago and Carmichael’s trip as told through their check-ins. I really like how this book handed over the spotlight to other members of Eve’s squad, which adds to the way Roberts has been building up her unit over the past few books. When the series began, you didn’t realize Eve actually ran homicide. Now there’s no question about her leadership.
@Meg: Totally unconnected, but I love your avatar, and tracking down the source, I discovered your really adorable webcomic (http://www.namesakecomic.com/ — at least I assume it’s yours!) I’ve got it bookmarked and foresee happy hours of binging in my future!
@Mason Canyon: He’s in the story but he doesn’t help Eve as much with her police work as he has in previous books. This time, Eve’s police team do more of the work and, you know, that makes more sense, even though I love Roarke!
@Erin Burns: Yes, I wonder if that’s part of why the violence struck me to much this time. And the sheer joy that the villains took in their work – I think that played a part too.
@It’s Me: Look on the bright side though – you’ve got all that goodness to look forward to! This is one series that I keep up with and devour any new book or novella as soon as I can – which, considering how many series’ I’ve bailed on at far less than 41 books, is pretty astounding.
@library addict: Maybe I’m getting more squeamish/sensitive as I get older or maybe it was something else but the violence in this book struck me more than in other books in the series.
@hapax: Ha! I hope it meets the brief! :)
@leslie: Horses for course I suppose. I’m sure reading mood plays a part in any book’s success for me and it turned out I was just in the right mood for exactly this.
@Kcsspartan: I was totally holding my breath for Jayla. I was never 100% sure how things would turn out for her.
@Meg: I think maybe the violence in this book struck me because of the romantic joy the villains took in it. That and perhaps I’m becoming more sensitive in my reading. I haven’t re-read Thankless in Death but I don’t remember the violence in the same way as it struck me here. It’s fair to say most of the In Death books have a great deal of violence though. I guess there must have been something here which tripped an individual button for me.
I’m glad you mentioned the other characters and their roles in the book. Yes, I completely agree. For the most part in In Death (and many other police procedurals – books and tv shows both) there is no sense that there are any other cases going on. In Devoted in Death, the reader sees the other homicide cops actively working on other cases and having to juggle that with the new cases which come in. And, not only that, Eve is delegating better too. I love the semi-ensemble feel of the cast. I feel like I know them so well now, I’m happy to spend time with most all of them.
@hapax: Yes, I’m the co-creator/writer of Namesake. I hope you enjoy the comic! It’s made with a lot of literary love.
@Kaetrin: I totally agree about the increased ensemble feel of the cast. One of my favorite moments of Eve and her squad is in “Festive in Death” and they all had to take a break from Roarke’s Christmas party to drink and watch a ball game. That was awesome.
The violence in “Thankless” stuck out more to me because of the extended torture done to the teacher. That, for some reason, just really horrified me like the violence here did for you. It came close though.
@Meg: The more I think about it, the more I realise that there is a lot of violence in this series in general (although some books are less graphic than others) so why I marked this one as *more* violent is something of a mystery even to me.
Finished this today, and agree it is an above-average “In Death” procedural, and the ensemble feel is great — I loved the bits with the officers out in Arkansas (and okay, it *was* stereotyping, but it was also spot-on) and Baxter and Trueheart.
It was definitely graphically violent, but the one thing that really bugged me was the amount of casual violence Eve and her officers dole out to suspects and informants. That’s always been a part of the series, and through the magic of authorial fiat the bad guys always “deserve” it; but somehow in this year after Ferguson and the string of repeated revelations of police brutality, it didn’t go down as a vicarious pleasure the way it used to.
YMMV.
@hapax: I didn’t particularly notice the casual violence Eve and her officers dole out – possibly it’s because I thought they deserved it or possibly it’s because as an Australian I’m that much more removed from police violence. Hmmm, not sure, will have to ponder.
There have been times when I’ve believe someone other than Nora Roberts wrote one of the In Death novels. This is one of them. Concealed in Death is another. In both novels, the author makes serious mistakes, mistakes Nora Roberts would never have made. For example, in Concealed in Death, it is sad that work is carrying a button from the coat eve was wearing when they met. Everyone knows the button came off of her gray suit, and not the black coat. In Devoted in Death, peabody says she would love to go run the opera just once. But she has attended an opera several times when she was dating Charles Monroe. Another clue, Rourke is mentioned only lightly and both of these novels. Plus, the dialogue between you and him never rings quite true.
@Denise: I’m pretty sure Nora is writing them all. FWIW, the button came off her grey suit coat. It would be just as accurate to call the button a coat button or a jacket button or refer to the gray suit IMO. After so long a series, it’s not a wonder some continuity slips past the editors (like Peabody and the opera).