Naked in Death, by J. D. Robb (1995)

Detective Eve Dallas has never let her personal life get in the way of solving crimes – but a mysterious murder suspect named Roarke could change everything.  

Time and Place: 2058.  New York City.

Summary

Eve Dallas: aggressive, neo-hardboiled NYPD detective with a past secret that keeps her relationships with men at arms’ length – emotionally, anyway.   Now someone is killing prostitutes, and Eve is on the case.  One of the suspects is Roarke, a wealthy businessman with no last name and no compunctions about seducing the brassy heroine.  Eve’s instincts have never lead her wrong, and they’re telling her that Roarke is no killer.  But the connection – and passion – she feels for him might just have affected her reasoning.

Evaluation

This book kicked off a 44-volume (and counting) series 11 years ago.  Millions of Nora Roberts (writing here as J. D. Robb) fans can’t be wrong about the author’s writing chops.  And yet.  I did not feel sympathetic to or connected with Eve in this book, and I did not find Roarke appealing other than in a very superficial Christian Grey sort of way (gorgeous rich megalomaniacal Prince Charming sweeps in, tells you what’s what, and makes your life a little less icky and a little more fancy.)  Also, the story really didn’t need to be set in 2058:  You could hardly call it “futuristic” except for the automatic food dispenser thing Eve had, hovering cars, and some offworld stuff (that in no way shape or form could possibly come to be as soon as 2058.  That’s as crazy an idea as personal jetpacks!)

Why I read it:  I’d never read a Nora Roberts book, and had heard about this wildly popular futuristic crime series by her writing as J. D. Robb.  I’m all about futuristic so felt this was a good entree into Robert’s work.

Rating:  ♦ ♦ / ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ (rating scale here)

Genre: Mystery – Police Procedural

Professional reviews:

“Truly fine entertainment.”—Publishers Weekly

“Superstar Nora Roberts dons a new pseudonym and proves why she is one of the world’s most remarkable storytellers in this ground-breaking novel of life and death in the 21st century…Superbly suspenseful and strikingly original.”—RT Book Reviews

Readalikes: First Grave on the Right (Darynda Jones,) Dial M for Mischief (Kasey Michaels,) Amaryllis (Jayne Castle / Jayne Ann Krentz)

Author readalikes: Suzanne Brockmann, Julie Garwood, Linda Howard

Bibliographic information
Title: Naked in Death (In Death, Book 1)
Author: J. D. Robb (Nora Roberts) (http://www.jdrobb.com/)
Publication: Berkley Books, New York, 1995
Pages: 313
ISBN:  9780425148297

Series notes: Book 1 of 44 in the In Death series

Available in: Paperback ($5.98,) Kindle eBook ($7.99)

Also available for free at your local library.