Naked in Death by Nora Roberts (In Death #1)

Via Goodreads

Rated it: 3.5 Stars            Recommend it to: Ages 18 and up. Adult content. Swearing cops and hot guys.

Goodreads blurb

The first book of the In Death series, featuring New York City homicide detective Lieutenant Eve Dallas and Roarke.

It is the year 2058, and technology now completely rules the world. But New York City Detective Eve Dallas knows that the irresistible impulses of the human heart are still ruled by just one thing-passion. When a senator’s daughter is killed, the secret life of prostitution she’d been leading is revealed. The high-profile case takes Lieutenant Eve Dallas into the rarefied circles of Washing-ton politics and society.
Further complicating matters is Eve’s growing attraction to Roarke, who is one of the wealthiest and most influential men on the planet, devilishly handsome . . . and the leading suspect in the investigation.

Someone has begun killing licensed companions, aka legal prostitutes, in New York. The first of the six – the grand daughter of a prominent senator – has been murdered promised by the unsub, two more would follow closely. Lieutenant Eve Dallas has been made investigating officer on the case and it becomes clear to her how almost unerringly close how the murders resemble her horrible childhood. No evidence linking to the perp was left at each crime scene except a different hand gun which was used to do the deed. Soon enough Eve gets personal with one of the first suspects, the enigmatic, handsome and very successful tycoon Roark and this could seriously compromise her position in the investigation.

I don’t know what kept me away from the series but I’d decided to give the first book a go and I have to say I enjoyed it but not head over heals. I like Eve, no nonsense, no fripperies, smart and kick-ass. My kind of heroine, but with her own dark past. The story is set in the future in the year 2058 – and this book was written in the early 1990s I believe – with some cool little gadgets, the cars glide on the roads, guns are banned, prostitution is legalized and a couple of other bits too, interesting stuff. The world is very advanced but so is moral decline and frankly this isn’t very strange in the current era.

N.R didn’t go all out in details of the future changes though and I didn’t mind much because the mystery of the is what really caught me. Who the hell is doing all of this? Why? He obviously hates these women who sell their bodies, or perhaps women in general. Whoever he is he’s clean, calculating, organized and cold, making this man even more dangerous. I sort of suspected the right guy but I wasn’t too sure but who it was wasn’t very obvious, and thank the leprechauns for it, otherwise Naked in Death wouldn’t make it to a second star rating because if there’s anything that really take the fun and thrill out of a book like this is it’s a transparent murderer.

I liked her writing style, it’s something I’ve grown accustomed to after reading several of Roberts’ books. The cop banter I enjoyed as I always have but let me tell you, the Nora Roberts virgins, the woman has no qualms about swearing. I don’t believe she’s written a book without any the element of romance, that’s her constant but it would be interesting to read something of hers void of it.

The romance between Eve and Roark wasn’t in the forefront but it was nicely blended into the background but this relationship of theirs was crucial to the investigation as Roark aided her not only on the case itself but he also helped Eve herself and she found that she finally found a confidant in someone, in him. Apparently they both have never felt the way they feel for each other before and when you read this you already know they’ll end up together eventually, but not in this book, not yet.

It really was a good book better that the last book of hers I read, probably not one of her best but still good. Maybe I shouldn’t be too hasty to brand it as is has about 17 books in the In Death series, that’s a lot of books and as of now I’m not too keen on starting the second one soon, Glory in Death, but I will someday.

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