Kindred in Death-J.D. Robb

Kindred in Death
J.D. Robb
Putnam, Nov 2009, $26.95
ISBN: 9780399155956

NYPD Police Lieutenant Eve Dallas and her husband Roarke are enjoying a rare three day weekend until she receives a call from Commander Whitney telling her to go to a crime scene wheere he will be waiting for her. Newly promoted Captain Jonah MacMasters and his wife went away for the weekend, but returned to find their sixteen years old daughter Deena dead; the teen was raped and sodomized several times before being suffocated to death.

The security discs are missing in their home so no pictures of the perp is available, but the cops assume this was personal because on a video, Deena says this was her dad’s fault. The Captain asks Dallas to lead the investigation; though close friends with Whitney and feeling exorbitant pressure, Eve agrees. During her investigation she learns the victim was deliberately targeted and the killer diligently researched to insure he knew when to attack and leave no ties. That Eve feels is his biggest mistake as Dallas and her team interview Deena’s friends learning the teen she was secretly seeing a college aged boy. Witnesses give Eve a description of Deena’s boyfriend. After he kills again with ties to the first homicide, Eve concludes he has a death list so she works even harder to bring this wannabe serial killer to justice.

The key to the terrific “In Death” futuristic police procedural saga is the recurring cast grows and changes yet their basic essences remain the same so that they become more than just characters to the readers. In this harrowing case that Dallas wants no part of as she knows whatever she learns will disturb her friends, the murder of a cop’s daughter hits home to readers (and Eve). J.D. Robb provides an excellent whodunit in which the heroine and her team meticulously step by step investigate without any unbelievable incidents not even by Roarke; making KINDRED IN DEATH one of the best entries in a strong series.

Harriet Klausner