Review of KINDLE Ebook Survivor in Death – Book 20 of the In Death series by R.D. Robb #Brainfluffbookreview #SurvivorinDeathbookreview

I’ve tried one of these near-future murder mysteries written by the very successful Nora Roberts under her pen name J.D. Robb, but it didn’t really do it for me. I decided to give the series another go and this time asked Himself for one of the best books – and he recommended this one…

The only thing that kept young Nixie Swisher from suffering the same fate as her parents, brother, housekeeper, and young sleepover companion was the impulsive nine-year-old’s desire for an illicit orange fizzy at 2 a.m. Taking the bereft girl under her wing, Eve is determined to make sure the killers don’t get the chance to finish their lethal job. From the first, however, the investigation is baffling. The Swishers were a nice family, living on the Upper West Side in a house with an excellent security system. Ordinary almost to a fault, they seemed unlikely victims for this carefully planned and executed crime. Valuables at the scene were left untouched, there was no sign of vandalism — just the corpses of five people murdered in their sleep.

Firstly, don’t worry about crashing midway into this series. I didn’t need to break a sweat to figure out who was doing what to whom – and Robb provides plenty of information about Eve Dallas and her backstory, given this particular crime also resonates unpleasantly with her. I really liked Eve, who is a typical, gritty cop wedded to restoring some kind of order onto the street of 2059 New York. I also liked the fact that she is very happily married to bad-boy-turned-good Roarke – do be warned that this isn’t one to leave around for the younger teens to read as there are a couple of steamy sex scenes and the language is somewhat salty at times.

That said, while the home invasion is horrible, Robb is careful not to tip into gratuitous violence – or sentimentality. I was impressed that the little girl’s plight is also depicted with restraint and some understanding of how children cope with trauma.

There had to be some suspension of belief over the fact that Eve scoops the little mite up and takes her home – but Robb manages to just about bring it off, I think. In amongst the investigation to discover who perpetrated this terrible crime and why, there is a steady stream of cop humour which I found very welcome. This book had me hooked right to the end, also believing that Nixie would eventually find happiness again – which mattered. And I now understand why this series is a firm favourite with so many folks, Himself included…
9/10