Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Kindred in Death

Kindred in Death by J.D. Robb

When the newly promoted captain of the NYPSD and his wife return a day early from their vacation, they are looking forward to spending time with their bright and vivacious sixteen-year-old daughter, who stayed behind.

Not even their worst nightmares could prepare them for the crime scene that awaits them instead. Deena has been brutally murdered in her bedroom, and her body shows signs of trauma that horrify even the toughest of cops, including our own Lieutenant Eve Dallas, who is specifically requested by the captain to investigate.

When the evidence starts to pile up, Dallas and her team think they are about to arrest their perpetrator; little do they know that someone has gone to great lengths to tease and taunt them by using a variety of identities.

Overconfidence can lead to careless mistakes. But for Dallas, one mistake might be all she needs to serve justice.

--Kindred in Death by J.D. Robb, Copyright ©2009 by J.D. Robb, published by Penguin Books

My Review

Kindred in Death starts as all of the In Death books do…with murder. This time, it’s young Deena McMasters. Someone managed to get access to her home, and to her, to carry out the bloody, horrific crime. When her parents return home from vacation, they find her body, and her father, NYPSD Captain McMasters specifically requests Lieutenant Eve Dallas as primary.

Dallas and her partner, Detective Delia Peabody, hit the ground running. In speaking with her best friend, she finds out Deena had a secret boyfriend who wasn’t all he claimed to be. He said he was a student at Columbia, a story Dallas quickly disproves. What else wasn’t he, she wonders, and quickly set out finding this Columbia-student-impostor.

As Dallas digs, she finds a startling motive and a strange reflection back to her own past. There’s no connection, but the similarities are unnerving, and that just makes Dallas want to put an end to the murder’s plans even more.

She’s hot on his trail, but not before he manages to claim another victim. The McMasters family is planning a memorial for Deena and Dallas knows her egotistical murder won’t resist the opportunity to make an appearance. Can Dallas apprehend her prey before he gets away to kill again?

The more I read J.D. Robb's stories, the more they begin to sound the same and the more I can predict what will happen next. In this story, as soon as the memorial service was announced, I knew Dallas would set up an operation to take down their main suspect at the service. But I also knew that he would somehow get away and they would make their grab at the third victim's home. And I was right. My interest in the series is waning...as evidence, consider that Kindred in Death came out in late 2009 and I only just now read it. I have the next in the series, Indulgence in Death but I'm not sure I'm going to buy the latest, Treachery in Death. I may wait until it comes out in paperback...we'll see.

I give this story THREE STARS.

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