From Publishers Weekly
Lieutenant Eve Dallas may live in 2059, but she's still a recognizable Manhattan police officer: mouthy, courageous, skeptical and impatient. In Roberts's latest In Death novel (after Purity in Death), she's charged with finding a killer who murders young people full of innocence and promise, photographs them after death, then taunts both a top reporter and Dallas herself with notes about his handiwork. Just as her investigation of Manhattan's clubs and colleges nears its peak, Eve's husband, the wealthy entrepreneur Roarke, discovers that his mother is not the cold abandoner he remembers, but a tender young Irishwoman whom his father brutally murdered. While he struggles to understand his heritage, the couple must navigate stormy marital waters. Though the mystery's denouement doesn't live up to its promise, the book ably delivers on other fronts. Intensely female yet unfeminine in any traditional sense, Dallas has a complex edge that transcends genre stereotypes and gives the book's romantic interludes a real charge. As always in Roberts's work, appealing secondary characters add genuine warmth and humor. And while this futuristic vision of New York may not be totally accurate (it's unlikely, for example, that Dallas's oft-used "bite me" will still be in vogue 50 years from now), it's perfectly calibrated to intrigue.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
Susan Ericksen depicts Lieutenant Eve Dallas with stern, businesslike tones as Eve tracks a serial killer who murders women, poses and photographs them, and then send the pictures to the newspapers. Lieutenant Dallas is portrayed as sassy and skeptical except in the arms of her new husband, Roark, where she becomes intensely female. Ericksen handles multiple accents--East Coast, Hungarian, and Scottish--with accomplished ease as Lieutenant Dallas interrogates suspects. Her portrayal of Spence, the caustic nurse-companion to crusty Somerset, a secondary character, is superb. The story is sometimes difficult to follow, but Erickson's rendering of it is outstanding. G.D.W. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
The futuristic mysteries Nora Roberts writes as J. D. Robb are powerful police procedurals that satisfy any reader with a craving for justice and a taste for passion. New York City homicide detective Eve Dallas has really been looking forward to her husband's butler's upcoming vacation -- 21 days free of his constant nitpicking, plus a chance to be uninhibitedly sensual with the handsome Roarke in absolute privacy. Then the butler takes a fall that postpones his vacation indefinitely, and a body found in a dumpster calls Eve away from the home front for a new case. When she learns that the press has received a portfolio containing professional-quality images of the victim -- including some that were carefully posed after death -- she begins to suspect that, from the killer's demented perspective, murder is an art form, and she begins to realize that this crime is only the first part of a serial killer's chillingly lethal work-in-progress. As Eve strives to make sure the deadly masterpiece is never completed, she also searches desperately for the key to some disturbing changes in her relationship with Roarke. Sue Stone

FROM THE PUBLISHER

After a tip from a reporter, Eve Dallas finds the body of a young woman in a Delancey Street dumpster. Just hours before, the news station had mysteriously received a portfolio of professional portraits of the woman. The photos seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary for any pretty young woman starting a modeling career. Except that she wasn't a model. And that these photos were taken after she had been murdered.

Now Dallas is on the trail of a killer who's a perfectionist and an artist. He carefully observes and records his victim's every move. And he has a mission: to own every beautiful young woman's innocence, to capture her youth and vitality - in one fateful shot...

FROM THE CRITICS

Romantic Times

...a masterpiece.

Publishers Weekly

Lieutenant Eve Dallas may live in 2059, but she's still a recognizable Manhattan police officer: mouthy, courageous, skeptical and impatient. In Roberts's latest In Death novel (after Purity in Death), she's charged with finding a killer who murders young people full of innocence and promise, photographs them after death, then taunts both a top reporter and Dallas herself with notes about his handiwork. Just as her investigation of Manhattan's clubs and colleges nears its peak, Eve's husband, the wealthy entrepreneur Roarke, discovers that his mother is not the cold abandoner he remembers, but a tender young Irishwoman whom his father brutally murdered. While he struggles to understand his heritage, the couple must navigate stormy marital waters. Though the mystery's denouement doesn't live up to its promise, the book ably delivers on other fronts. Intensely female yet unfeminine in any traditional sense, Dallas has a complex edge that transcends genre stereotypes and gives the book's romantic interludes a real charge. As always in Roberts's work, appealing secondary characters add genuine warmth and humor. And while this futuristic vision of New York may not be totally accurate (it's unlikely, for example, that Dallas's oft-used "bite me" will still be in vogue 50 years from now), it's perfectly calibrated to intrigue. (Mar. 4) Forecast: There should be no surprises here. Like its predecessors, this Robb novel will head straight to the top of the bestseller charts. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

It's the year 2059, and Lt. Eve Dallas is tracking another serial killer in New York City-this time a photographer with an eye for the pure and innocent. Eve is serious and focused in her quest for justice, but humor is added throughout by her precocious sidekick, Peabody, and by their loose grasp of history: Who were Ansel Adams and Mathew Brady and why would rising young photographers take these odd noms de plume anyway? Together, Eve and Peabody trace the killer through the student culture of Columbia University and the Juilliard School. Meanwhile, Eve's Irish husband, Roarke, learns disturbing information about his past that has him lashing out at the people who love him most. Susan Ericksen has established voices that mirror the quirks of the recurring characters: Eve's impatience with anything that gets in the way of her case, Peabody's curiosity about everything in work and life, and Roarke's anger at having his ideas challenged. Highly recommended.-Juleigh Muirhead Clark, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Lib., Colonial Williamsburg Fdn., VA Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

AudioFile