J.D. Robb – Rapture in death

The fourth book in the In Death series, published in 1996.

They died with smiles on their faces. Three apparent suicides: a brilliant engineer, an infamous lawyer, and a controversial politician. Three strangers with nothing in common – and no obvious reasons for killing themselves. Police Lieutenant Eve Dallas found the deaths suspicious. And her instincts paid off when autopsies revealed small burns on the brains of the victims. Was it a genetic abnormality or a high-tech method of murder? Eve’s investigation turned to the provocative world of virtual-reality games – where the same techniques used to create joy and desire could also prompt the mind to become the weapon of its own destruction…

While still on their honeymoon on the Olympus Resort, Roarkes greatest but not yet finished project, there is a suspicious death. It appears suicide, and Eve can find no clues to something else. She also has no jurisdiction out of space, so she has to turn the case over to others. But still, it just doesn’t ring true.

Back home in New York, Eve has a lot of court dates to give evidence. The next morning, she is called to the home of the lawyer she butted heads with, and finds him death in his bathtub. Why would he do that? Why would a very vain and arrogant man kill himself in such a manner? And why? He had no troubles at all, was very successful in what he did. Defending the lowlifes and most times, successfully.

Then Eve gets wind of a Washington senator jumping out of his office window. Again, a man with no apparent reason for suicide. And then the medical examiner finds a tiny little burn mark in the brain of the dead lawyer, and Eve starts her investigation.

Also Mavis stars in this book. She has found someone to work with, who polishes up her songs and act. And now they want Roarke and Eve to throw a party to promote Mavis. But something is just not kosher with the music. Is Mavis just being used to get close to Roarke and his very deep pockets of money?

And just when Eve thinks she has found her killer, his profile doesn’t match according to dr. Mira. Will a second opinion by a shrink with a different background, who believes everything is printed upon us by birth, get a different outcome?

Well, the blurb tells most of the story this time. I haven’t much inspiration today to write a good review. Mostly, I hope that what happens in 2058 in this series, will indeed become reality, as most sounds just great. But the clue in this story, I hope that will never become true. A really horrible thing, to be able to control people to do what ever you want them to do. Even suicide. Or rape.

I also don’t care much about the theories off the second shrink. That every thing we do, we were destined to do, to be. That free will and choices are of no influence on our destiny. Everything is in the genetic code of a person and unchangeable. I just can’t believe that. It is just a great excuse for bad behaviour. I couldn’t help myself, it was destiny …

8 stars.