Review: VENGEANCE IN DEATH

Vengeance in Death by JD Robb
Book 6 of the In Death series
Narrated by Martha Harmon Pardee
Genre: SciFi murder mystery, police investigation, crime fiction
Format: paperback & audiobook

About Vengeance in Death:

He is an expert with the latest technology...a 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.

Police 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 10 years past - a secret shared by none other than Eve's new husband, Roarke.

Source: Info in the About Vengeance in Death was taken from Audible at http://www.theaudiobookstore.com/j-d-robb/vengeance-in-death-in_bkbrll000126.aspx on 15/03/2012.

Review:

I think this book has the thickest plot yet in this series thus far. I actually did not guess who the bad guy is. At all! Unlike previous books where my guess was proven correct. Lots and lots of kudos to this book for a tricky plot! Usually when it's book 6 into the series it gets repetitive and the series goes downhill for me like the Carpathian series did. However Vengeance in Death deviates from that pattern. This book, even if it is the 6th installment in the series, did not read like "same old, same old", but kept the reader engaged and kept it's novelty fresh. You gotta give the series kudos for achieving that, six books down the line! Additionally, I believe that Vengeance in Death can be read on it's own. So you do not have to suffer through reading 5 books of lesser entertainment value to enjoy this one, you can just dive straight in! Not that the previous books were not good, no! It's just that some of it were better than others. Having said that, a reader would probably appreciate the characters and events better if this series is read in chronological order. Specially with Book 1 giving the basics of succeeding plots. So basically, it depends on what kind of reader you are, in deciding whether or not to read this book as a stand alone or not.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4
Character development = 4.5
Story itself = 4.5
Ending = 4.5
World building = 4.5
Cover art = 1
Pace = N/A (10 hours & 48 min)
Plot = 4.5
Narrator = 4.5
Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 cherries