Calculated in Death

December 17, 2012
In bestseller Robb’s engaging 37th Eve Dallas thriller (after 2012’s Delusion in Death), Dallas and her partner, Delia Peabody, look into the death of Marta Dickenson. Found with a broken neck at the bottom of a stairway in an Upper East Side Manhattan building, which is under renovation by a financial consultant group, Dickenson was employed as an accountant by a firm nearby. And her briefcase, containing files she had been auditing, was stolen. Confident it’s a case of murder, Dallas and her smoothly running team conduct an ever-widening probe of accountants, financial advisers, their spouses, and their lovers. Her husband, Roarke, a former hacker and now owner of his own electronics company, lends his special skills. Robb (the pen name of Nora Roberts) supplies her usual winning blend of keen investigative work, striking characterizations, and enthusiastic sex, all leavened with a fine sense of humor. Agent: Amy Berkower, Writers House.

January 1, 2013
Beautiful people meet unlovely numbers in Lt. Eve Dallas' 36th case. Even in 2060, upscale citizens still need accountants, but Marta Dickenson was evidently one accountant too many. Someone hoping to make her death look like a mugging gone bad broke her neck, stripped off her coat and earrings, and left her at the bottom of a stairwell in an apartment building Bradley Whitestone and his two partners are rehabbing. But since the killer didn't think to take Marta's expensive footwear, Eve Dallas and her partner, Detective Delia Peabody, know from the first that this was no random robbery. The evidence points to one of the well-heeled clients Marta handled for the firm of Brewer, Kyle, and Martini. Maybe it was trust-fund dependent Candida Mobsley, who treated Marta's audit the way most people would treat a pesky mosquito. Maybe it was Latisha Vance or Angie Carabelli of the decorating firm Your Space. Or Carter Young-Sachs or Ty Biden, salt-and-pepper business partners. Or Sterling Alexander and the similarly mismatched Thomas Pope. And since whoever it was wouldn't have wanted to take on the job personally, Dallas and Peabody must also search for the killer who was hired to do the dastardly deed and who doesn't seem to be finished. The setup screams danger and suspense, but in between Dallas' lightning inferences at the initial crime scene and the confrontation with an overconfident accomplice, the case is strictly routine, with no surprises likely for anyone familiar with Dallas' best-selling series. On the plus side, Dallas and her zillionaire husband, Roarke, continue to enjoy a great sex life, including one interlude only moments before the denouement. It's enough to make you nostalgic for the 2060s.

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