J.D. Robb – Holiday in Death

Wow, my 200^th post already!

The seventh book in the In Death series, published in 1998.

When computer technology brings lovers together, dating can be a deadly game…

No one likes to be alone during the holidays. And for New York’s most posh dating service, Personally Yours, it is the season to bring lonely hearts together. But Lieutenant Eve Dallas, on the trail of a ritualistic serial killer, has made a disturbing discovery: all of the killer’s victims have been traced to Personally Yours. As the murders continue, Eve enters an elite world of people searching for their one true love – and a killer searching for his next victim. A world where the power of love leads men and women into the ultimate act of betrayal.

After being severely wounded in the previous book, Lieutenant Eve Dallas is eager to get back to work, even though she is not totally healed yet. It is almost Christmas time, and now she has to do some shopping for the friends she has accumulated since meeting Roarke. It used to be only Mavis and her, but now there is Nadine, Peabody, Dr. Mira and of course her husband. But what do you buy for the man who owns half the known galaxy already?

And Roarke is throwing a Christmas party, why does he have to do stuff like that? Decorating Christmas trees is also something Eve hasn’t done before in her life. But Roarke wants to create memories together, do the traditional things.

Christmas is also a time for murder, and Eve has to find a serial killer, who uses the 12 days of Christmas as his theme. What do you do when you see Santa Claus on your doorstep, carrying a lovely present for you? You open the door. Which is a very bad choice in this instance. The killer is cocky, even poses for the security camera’s knowing he can’t be recognized in his Santa disguise. He tranqs, then rapes and strangles his victims, making them more beautiful, leaving a temporary tattoo somewhere on the body, reading: my one true love, and then he leaves a piece of jewelry behind, hinting at the song. A partridge in a pear tree, two turtledoves, etc. So does he want to kill 12 people before Christmas? How is Eve going to find him, when he leaves no trace at all behind?

The only thing the first two victims have in common, is the dating service they used. The make up used on them was very high end, but still too popular to nail it down to a few buyers. Eve doesn’t like the owners/managers of Personally Yours, she is convinced there is something wrong with them. But after trying very hard to find evidence, they are not the murderer. Piper even becomes a victim, rescued only just in time by her brother.

Eve decides to use Peabody and McNab as undercover agents, having them signed on at Personally Yours. Hoping this will flush out the killer. And in the end, it does. But will she be there on time to save Peabody?

A great book. I didn’t remember the details much, but I did remember who the murderer was. Really creepy person, very much disturbed. But you can’t blame the mother for the choices he made. No new characters to the cast yet, though we did meet Charles, the LC again. I like him.

8,5 stars.

J.D. Robb – Vengeance in Death

The sixth book in the In Death series, published in 1997.

When technology links the law and the lawless, predators and prey can become one and the same …

He is a techno-savvy madman with the mind of a genius and the heart of a killer. He quietly stalks his prey. Then he haunts the police with cryptic riddles about the crimes he is about to commit – always solved moments too late to save the victims’ lives. Lieutenant Eve Dallas found the first victim butchered in his own home. The second lost his life in a vacant luxury apartment. The two men had little in common. Both suffered unspeakable torture before their deaths. And both had ties to an ugly secret of ten years past – a secret shared by none other than Eve’s husband, Roarke.

Fifteen years ago Summerset’s daughter, age 14, was raped, tortured and murdered. All because Roarke was getting to much of the action of a Dublin gang. But he took his revenge on all six of them. But now his past sins are coming back to haunt him, and Summerset. Summerset and Eve really dislike each other. Summerset thinks Eve is beneath Roarke, he could have had the crème the la crème of society women, glamorous, successful, great hostesses. Instead he chose a cop. And cops don’t get much esteem from Summerset. After all, they did nothing when his little girl was murdered back then.

And now Eve is getting transmissions from a murderer, daring her to find him, and stop him from killing his next victim. He claims to be the hand of God, justice. But his handiwork is ugly, the worst Eve has ever seen. And all the leads point to Summerset as the killer. And arrogant as he is, he doesn’t listen to Eve at all. He has no solid alibi’s for the times of the murder, he refuses to be careful. And now she has to do the best she can to keep both him and her husband Roarke out of the fire.

People are getting murdered, people Roarke new, and even loved back home in Dublin, Ireland. The murderer is very knowledgeable with electronics, dazzling the e-detective McNab. But he is getting closer, and with Captain Feeney on a well deserved vacation, he is the leading man, working together with Roarke and his R & D department to track down the killer. Eve tries to draw out the murderer by getting his attention on herself. All those murders are only a beginning, the real target is Roarke, and she will do everything in her power to prevent that, even offering herself up as bait first.

This was a real suspenseful story, and I loved it. We got to meet McNab, who will play his part in the rest of the series. A very colourfully dressed e-detective, very good at his work, and totally loving all of Roarkes toys (and his food).

This time it is Roarke who faces his past, not Eve, though she still has her nightmares haunting her. And we got to know Summerset a little better, though he still is a tight-ass, and will always be one.

8 stars

Linda Wisdom – 50 ways to hex your lover

The first book in the Jazz Tremaine series, published in 2008.

Jazz can't decide whether to scorch him with a fireball or jump into bed with him.

Jasmine Tremaine, a witch who can't stay out of trouble.

Nikolai Gregorivich, a drop-dead gorgeous vampire cop on the trail of a serial killer.

The sizzling love affair between Jazz and Nick has been off-again, on-again-for about 300 years. Mostly off, lately. But now Nick needs Jazz's help, and while Jazz and Nick try to figure out their own hearts and resist their ever-increasing attraction, they must steer clear of a maniacal killer with super-supernatural powers. They are surrounded by a hilarious cast of oddball paranormal characters, including Irma, the chain-smoking ghost who haunts Jazz's sports car, Dweezil, her ghoul of a boss, and Fluff and Puff, a pair of bunny slippers with sharp teeth and short tempers (watch your ankles)!

Jazz is living as she wants and happy with her life. She has a day job as a limousine driver for paranormal clients, and a part time job as a curse extinguisher, in LA. She loves living near the coast, like she grew up many hundreds of years ago in Ireland, named Griet. Two of her best friends live in a nearby town. And she rents a nice apartment in the house of a (human) computer geek who became a very good friend. She drives a great sportscar she loves, the only downside of that is, she is stuck with the ghost of a woman who died in that car, and refuses to leave.

Then Nick turns up again, needing her help. He has asked that before, and each time she ends up in jail while he leaves in the night. So she is determined to turn him down this time. Until she learns that the man she thought she killed 70 years ago, is still alive and kicking, and murdering vampires to sustain his own existence. It cost her dearly, the killing of a person, no matter how evil he was, and now he isn’t even dead! So why has the witches council punished her so severely, when she was already hurting in her soul for it.

Witches and Vampires have never been friends, with the added benefit that drinking the blood of a witch will make a vampire sick, and perhaps even kill him if he is still young. So the rest of the paranormal community is not overly concerned with the disappearances and murders of so many vampires. But will the murderer stop there, or try some other type of blood soon?

Jazz is still trying to stay out of it. Nick can tell her he quit the Protectorate, but he still wants to ask them for info and stuff. Especially his sire, who has been around since the Roman empire. Then she meets her nemesis eye to eye, kind of, and he terrorizes Irma, her ghost, and smears her car with evil. He will come after her again, if she doesn’t stop him again, and this time for good. The witches council won’t help her, so she decides to go for information at The Library, which is an experience all on its own. The Librarian already doesn’t like her much, so she has to be on her best behaviour.

I liked this first book. It has lots of humor in it, and of course, Jazz is a witch. I love reading about witches, especially the sassy and powerful ones who fight evil. And the attraction between Jazz and Nick is sure sparking from the pages. Then there are of course the secondary characters. I am very curious what will happen next and to learn more about the younger Jazz and what she did to get expelled from witch school and to keep being banished.

7 stars.

New additions to my addiction

Recently I have received the following great books:

Jayne Ann Krentz - Shield's Lady
Anna Windsor - Captive Spirit
Kathryne Kennedy - Beneath the thirteen moons
Karen Hawkins - One night in Scotland

And right now I should be writing a review, but I am too tired for it. Which is also the reason I am not reading one of those books, but rereading another In Death book.

J.D. Robb – Ceremony in Death

The fifth book in the In Death series, published in 1997.





Conducting a top secret investigation into the death of a fellow police officer has Lieutenant Eve Dallas treading on dangerous ground. She must put professional ethics before personal loyalties. But when a dead body is placed outside of her home, Eve takes the warning personally. With her husband, Roarke, watching her every move, Eve is drawn in the most dangerous case of her career. Every step she takes makes her question her own sense of right and wrong – and brings her closer to a confrontation with humanity’s most seductive form of evil …



With this book Lieutenant Eve Dallas dives into the strange world of Wicca, and its opposite, Satanism. Can the down to earth cop really understand what people motivate to engage in those opposite religions? There are murders enough, but can she prove it are murders? A cop, his granddaughter, a young Satanist, a banker, a lawyer. But who is or are the killer? The Satanists? Or the Wiccan? A difficult case for Eve, one she almost loses her life for.

8 stars.

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.

New books to look forward to for december 2010

Here is the list of new books I am eagerly awaiting for december 2010:

Laura Childs – Bedeviled Eggs

Kathryn Kennedy - Beneath the thirteen moons
Kresley Cole – Deep kiss of winter
Jude Deveraux – The Scent of Jasmine
Christine Feehan – Ruthless Game
Marjorie M. Liu - In the dark of dreams – Dirk and Steele 11
Anna Windsor – Captive Soul
Anne McCaffrey – Catacombs – Barque Cats 2
Kinley MacGregor – Darkness within – Lords of Avalon 3
Cherry Adair – Undertow
Jayne Ann Krentz – In too deep – Arcane Society Looking Glass 1

Mmm I have only read 5 of the new books listed for november, though I have read lots and lots more this month. Some have not reached my house yet, and some I have to read the previous books first.

So many books, so little time ...