Celebrity in Death
Celebrity in Death (In Death, #34)by J.D. Robb
Lieutenant Eve Dallas is no party girl, but she’s managing to have a reasonably good time at the celebrity-packed bash celebrating The Icove Agenda, a film based on one of her famous cases. It’s a little spooky seeing the actress playing her, who looks almost like her long-lost twin. Not as unsettling, though, as seeing the actress who plays Peabody—drowned in the lap pool on the roof of the director’s luxury building.Talented but rude, and widely disliked, K. T. Harris had madean embarrassing scene during dinner. Now she’s at the center of a crime scene—and Eve is more than ready to get out of her high heels and strap on her holster, to step into the role she was born to play: cop. (goodreads.com)
I'll tell you a secret, one of the reasons I started this book blog was so I could keep track of insanely long series like this one. I can never remember which time comes when in the series and I used to have a word document saved where I'd write down the titles and refer to them when browsing the mystery section of the store. You'll note that Celebrity in Death is book 34 in the series and if you check out the series on Goodreads, you'll also see there's a myriad of in-between stories, too (that I have never read). I won't even note them on these posts because, frankly, it makes me tired to get that detailed.This happy little mystery book showed up in my mailbox the day I finished Dragonswood making it very easy to just open up the envelope and dive in. None of that "What do I read next? SO MANY BOOKS!" frustration I normally have. Bless you Book Depository and my brilliant idea to pre-order this mass market book months ago. I couldn't have asked for better timing.I started out thinking I wasn't going to like this particular instalment of the series one bit. I found all the secondary characters annoying and dumb. I right out hated some of them. But I was surprised when the mystery itself became a lovely Who Dunnit? style. Like Clue (you know, Clue!) or And Then There Were None. The death of a character, during a party which makes all the attendees suspects (minus, you know, Dallas, Roarke, Peabody, McNab...) We bounced back and forth between each of the actors and some I began to like a little more, others I still hated. The entire time I kept switching my idea of how the murder was pulled off and by whom.I had a moment of worry that it was going to be someone we hadn't even met in the story. I HATE when mysteries are solved that way, in book or tv show. At least introduce the character!Happily that wasn't the case.I was genuinely surprised in the end, although I figured it out seconds before I turned the page and Dallas did. I was even drinking coffee at the time. I felt all Detective-like. Legit, yo.I also found that I skipped fewer pages in this book than I have the last few novels. Things I skip: 1) the sex scenes (not even because I'm Queen Prude, but because they are the same thing over and over and over, and frankly, after 34 books, that gets boring.) 2) the long descriptions of how Eve is the best cop, the cop who makes the victim hers, how she's dedicated and that makes her team dedicated, how she stands for what's right and true.. blah, blah, blah. If you read the series regularly, I'm sure you'll understand the sections of the story I mean. It's the SAME BLOODY THING each time. Again. Boring. Lastly 3) the long inner turmoil/description of her abuse as a child and how she has to relate everything she went through to the case she's on and then she questions if she did the right thing and what makes what she did better than what the killer is doing and blah blah blah. Again. Repetitive and generally flows into point 1) or 2). It's a pattern.Anyhow, those scenes are easy to spot coming and easy to skip over. It's generally a 2-3 page dealio so I skim, flip and just wait for the little extra paragraph spacing that means we're back into the real story and done with the mushy boring crap.I am happy to say there wasn't a lot of that in this book. It started off shakey though, what with the first chapters being all about the gushing about how WONDERFUL Eve is by the actors playing her and others on the set. Gush! Praise! Fawn! Eve deflects! Humbles! Grumps! But we moved past that at a decent pace and I was able to become properly ensconced in the murder mystery itself.I tend to like the books best when the mystery is the main plot point and not the relationship aspect. Although I do love the relationships between characters in this series, sometimes it bogs down the mystery a little too much.One thing I do miss is Peabody. I find the dynamic between Dallas and her (now) partner has changed and there's less amusing banter between the two. The thing is, I can see the character growth in Peabody immensely throughout these books. In fact, I feel like she's the ONLY character to have evolved at all in 34 books. I just wish there was more Dallas and Peabody screen time, so to speak (er, write). Less Eve and Roarke. More Dallas and Peabody!And after all of this time, I have a silly question. How do you pronounce Roarke's name? Is it like York? Or Row-ark? I go through various pronunciations as I read, I can't pick one and stick with it. I'm always questioning myself. So I am asking you, the internet.And.. it's possible that I will read the next novel before next year. Now that we have this eReader thing in the house, I might just get the latest In Death book on it and not wait for the mass market edition to come out like I normally do. I still haven't decided because I still haven't quite accepted the fact that there's an eReader in the house (even though I have read two novellas on it already.) We'll see.In Death Series
- Naked in Death
- Glory in Death
- Immortal in Death
- Rapture in Death
- Ceremony in Death
- Vengeance in Death
- Holiday in Death
- Conspiracy in Death
- Loyalty in Death
- Witness in Death
- Judgement in Death
- Betrayal in Death
- Seduction in Death
- Reunion in Death
- Purity in Death
- Portrait in Death
- Imitation in Death *
- Divided in Death
- Visions in Death
- Survivor in Death
- Origin in Death *
- Memory in Death *
- Born in Death *
- Innocent in Death
- Creation in Death
- Strangers in Death *
- Salvation in Death *
- Promises in Death *
- Kindred in Death *
- Fantasy in Death*
- Indulgence in Death*
- Treachery in Death*
- New York to Dallas *
- Celebrity in Death *
- Delusion in Death *
- Calculated in Death - hard cover Feb 2013 /pb Aug 2013
- Thankless in Death - hard cover Sept 2013
(mass market editions, unless otherwise noted)