Naked in Death

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I agree with your assessment that Roarke is a creation of female fantasy (sigh), and as such, this won’t ever translate for AJH. Sorry, but it’s true. :) But, AJH we ALL appreciate your strong stance against violence towards women. Thanks for being such a stand up guy. Eve stayed up all night investigating Lola Starr’s murder. She searched the IRCCA (International Resource Center on Criminal Activity), but found nothing (79). She shows Feeney the piece of paper she found: “TWO OF SIX.” She breaks the news to Lola’s parents, then does a follow-up interview with Lola’s landlord (81). I guess I self-define as a man who does not resort to violence to solve his problems, so I don’t see why women need a separate sub-clause. Basically the circumstances in which I’d hit a woman are exactly the same as the circumstances in which I’d hit a man: self-defence, sparring and extreme vengeance because they’d like murdered my brother or something (and, even then, I’d probably actually just go to the police). Violence against women and children is actually a recurring theme in the series. Both Eve and Roarke were raised in equally brutal circumstances. Their fathers were not nice men. It has shaped their lives – Roarke frequently remarks that they are “two lost souls” who created a happy life together against enormous odds. Roarke came out of it a little better because Summerset adopted him before he was completely grown, which gave him a more “normal” upbringing. (Eve and Summerset loathe one another at first sight, but slowly will appreciate each other’s place in Roarke’s world.) Eventually Roarke even funds a shelter for abused women and children, as a tribute to Eve. a b c Robb, J.D. (2000). "Chapter Twenty". Judgment in Death. Penguin Publishing Group. ISBN 9781101203798.

Visions in Death (#19): I love everything about this book, from the properly scary antagonist to a scene that never fails to make me cry toward the end, even though I first read this book nine years ago. Naked in Death is my favourite, though I also liked Conspiracy in Death because I always love that story – where you take the thing that defines the character away from them, and watch how they cope. Also, as you point out, ideally hitting someone – a woman or otherwise – just shouldn’t be a consideration, so the mere fact that people feel they have to go out of their way to establish that they won’t almost carries an implied threat. I could but … I won’t. Because I’m just that great. I agree that there are too many books featuring serial killers. There are also a few books made more interesting because Eve sides (inwardly, at least) with the murderers. I’d like to see more of those. Many of the male serial killers are too similar. The women who kill are more interesting, as a rule.I’ve reread it so many times at this point it’s sometimes hard to remember my initial reaction to it. I used to reread every book in the series before a new one would come out, but I had to stop doing that around the time the series went to hardcover.

Nadine is one of the intended victims of the murderer in Glory in Death, but is saved by Eve, who is the primary investigator on the case. She is an ambitious but ethical reporter, who will always protect her source. Nadine is a sharp dresser, a fact Eve finds odd. Glad you liked the review. For what it’s worth, I don’t actually think the light-touch world building is a flaw of any kind. At least, not for me. I really dislike SF and fantasy forever explaining to you what their imaginary future is like. I’d rather just get on with the story and have it build slowly over time. I think I was mostly confused because I hadn’t realised it was sci-fi at all going in. Yeah, the birth control thing did confuse me and, although I actually read this book a few weeks, I also seem to recall having the impression that there was some kind of special magic future disease solving thing going on.

I think I had that problem as well because I sort of went in expecting to love it, and only sort of quite liked it. I think it’s fairly common to feel like you’re missing something when lots of people really dig a series but you, well, don’t but I think the thing about fiction in general is that it’s often quite personal. And sometimes you just won’t particularly like what something is doing, and that’s okay. I’m honestly a bit torn on the world building. I thought it had a very light touch, which I liked, but there were little bits of it where I wasn’t sure how they fit together or sort of how plausible they were. Maybe this is just my English stereotypes coming to the fore, but I really can’t imagine America banning guns within fifty years.