Audible Book Review: Vengeance in Death by J.D. Robb

My favorite "In Death" listen so far!

Vengeance in Death: In Death, Book 6 

• UNABRIDGED
• by J. D. Robb
• Narrated by Susan Ericksen

     Genre: Crime Thriller
     My rating: 4.75 of 5.0

Product Description:
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.

Review: 

The serial killer in this book is a brutal, twisted religious fanatic who sees himself as an instrument of God’s righteous vengeance. He is taunting Eve with clues that have her racing to the crime scenes only to arrive moments after the death of the victims.  It is soon clear that the killer is purposefully playing Eve and plans to include Roarke and Eve as ultimate victims in his plan of revenge.

I have always been a bit put off by the antagonism between Eve and Roarke’s friend/man servant, Sommerset.  I really think they should be getting/ trying to get along better since they both have such strong connection and love for Roarke. This story brings their animosity  to a head as the killer twists the clues and events to point to Sommerset.  And there is cause for Sommerset to become the primary suspect when the connection of the victims to Raorke’s and Sommerset’s past lives is revealed to Eve.  Even though Eve is trying to do her job and trying to prove Sommerset’s innocence, Sommerset is not particularly cooperative.

This book is full of the great dialogue I enjoy between the characters.  There is great sensual heat and growing emotional attachment between Eve and Roarke.  There is growing comraderie too between Eve and Peabody. More and more of Peabody’s quirky character is being revealed.

I love how the emotions are “shown” by action.  I can clearly visualize Eve’s anger through this phrase: she...“closed her mouth, teeth first.” The narrator, Susan Ericksen, does a suburb job with the accents, including Eve’s crisp tough cop persona, Peabody’s nasally New York, Sommerset’s uptight, prissy butler tone, Roarke’s cheerful and passionate Irish, Dr. Mira’s fresh and professional female, and various other, particularly Irish, accents of the characters in this story.  Even more impressive is Ms. Ericksen’s fine performance of the emotional action.  She nails the expressions of trembling fear, snarling disapproval, chuckling warmth, frustrated weariness and twisted psychotic venom - just to identify a few.  

One apt quote I jotted down from this Audible was Eve’s summary of the killer’s twisted religious vengeful purpose:
“And the seeds of his faith were sown in blood, rooted in vengeance and bloomed in death.”

I thought this was the best of the series so far. I look forward to listening to book 7, Holiday in Death.
This book was from my own Audible TBR list. Check the review before this one for a chance to win a used copy of Book 5, Ceremony in Death.

This series consists of 33 full length novels plus a few Novellas and a few in anthologies.  If anyone wants to join this challenge let me know and I will set up a linky or we can just share reading along.