Softening up Eve

In New York City in the year 2059, Det. Eve Dallas is beyond prickly. She speaks in crisp little phrases with never a wasted word. Her partner, trusty Det. Delia Peabody, calls her “Sir,” while Eve’s mysterious billionaire husband, Roarke, calls her “Lieutenant.” Everyone’s a little scared of her. But Eve has a heart of gold, and Nora Roberts’ (or, in this case, J.D. Robb’s) millions of readers know that.

In “Survivor in Death,” an Upper West Side family is brutally slaughtered with military-style precision. What humanizes Eve’s pursuit of the suspect, setting it apart from the standard police procedural, is the one survivor of the massacre: the family’s 9-year-old daughter, Nixie, who was down in the kitchen getting a soda when two black-garbed intruders entered the house. Eve, against instinct and character (she doesn’t much like kids), takes the grief-stricken little girl into her own home, a high-tech mansion. It’s her relationship with the terrified youngster that is the soul of the book.

Providing the novel’s heart is a scene in which Nixie, at her own request, is taken to the morgue to say goodbye to her murdered mother, father and brother. Also, for titillation, there’s a sex scene between Eve and Roarke involving a futuristic breed of flower called the Venus Bloom, grown on an outer planet, that, when traced lightly over the skin causes sensation to be heightened tenfold. (Whoa, J.D.!)

OK, one little complaint. There’s a character called Nadine Furst, a “foxy” television news reporter, and Eve promises to give her the inside track on the story if she bloodies the suspects in the media. “Watch my evening report,” she says. “I’ll start bloodying them now.” I don’t think so, Nadine, baby. Not and keep your job.

Roberts has written about 160 books thus far, of which more than 100 have been on bestseller lists. “Survivor in Death” is the 20th entry in the J.D. Robb series, and once again all the necessary background exposition is nicely woven into the text in a way that makes the book a terrific, fun read. *