Faithless in Death: An Eve Dallas Novel

Faithless in Death by J. D. Robb (pseudonym for Nora Roberts) brings murder, romance and suspense to a well-written futuristic police procedural and romantic suspense set in New York City and Connecticut during the spring of 2061. This is the fifty-second book in the In Death Eve Dallas series and I have read all of them up to this point.This story starts with our protagonist, Lieutenant Eve Dallas of the NYC police department, being called to a crime scene. Joined by her partner, Detective Delia Peabody, they find the body of sculptor Ariel Byrd in her studio. While it appears to be a crime of passion, the 911 caller’s story doesn’t track and seems full of lies. As the police investigate, the lies include more than just the tale about finding the dead body. Before long, they get the FBI involved in a case that also involves a fanatical group.It’s always entertaining to spend time with Eve, Roarke, and Eve’s colleagues. She is definitely a compelling and three-dimensional character. Her need to serve and protect comes through in every book, but the underlying impetus for this is best understood by reading this series in order. Due to the way Eve was raised, she often doesn’t understand commonly used phrases and this comes into play a few times in this book making her seem more real and less perfect. As always, the interactions between Eve and Roarke are enjoyable and bring a different facet of Eve’s personality to light. Many of the reoccurring police characters play significant roles in this book. However, readers also get to see a bit of their private lives as Mavis, Leonardo, and Bella have big news.The prose is well-written, entertaining, and engaging. This time Eve’s passion for justice and those that need help pushes the story beyond finding a single murderer to taking down a disturbing group of people preying on others. The plot is thought-provoking and tragic. While this book has some action, it is mostly a police procedural until the ending. It is appalling in places and uplifting in others.Robb is an author that manages to embed humor in her novels, providing some much needed levity to offset some of the more serious and grim aspects of the story. There is a steamy scene in the novel as well. Themes include murder, justice, family dynamics, cults, child abuse, domestic violence, greed, racism, infidelity, intolerance of others, and much more.If you enjoy engaging near-future police procedurals with some romance and humor, then I recommend this series. Overall, it is entertaining, and over time, it is like spending time with old friends. I can’t wait to read the next book in the series.I purchased a digital copy of this novel. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own and are not biased in any way. Publication date was February 9, 2021.

I've dinged Robb before on some of her Eve Dallas "In Death" novels, especially when she tries to do science fiction without knowing any actual science. And the editing on some of her work is atrocious, but that's not on her. But with FAITHLESS IN DEATH, she steps up to the plate and knocks one clean out of the ballpark. This is superb plotting. The dialogue snaps, all our favorite characters have important roles, not just as scenery, and the stakes are very, very high. Eve Dallas investigates what looks like a simple murder, but when she starts tugging on a couple of stray threads she winds up unravelling a worldwide conspiracy. Like ORIGIN IN DEATH, this one crime opens up into a much, much larger story, one in which the originating murder recedes into the background while still remaining important. There are some great scenes here, with Eve Dallas snapping out orders to her troops, planning out a raid with the precision and complexity of the invasion of Normandy, and coordinating not just with American law enforcement, but with international law enforcement as well. The canvas is huge, the stakes are high, and the resolution--with some of Dallas' best interrogation scenes--is satisfying. Even the distraction of Peabody obsessing over home decor provided a welcome respite from some of the ratcheting tension. Dallas herself comes across in this one as passionate, focused, and dedicated, traits that render her usual annoying and irritating self believable and relatable. If I had to recommend a novel to a new Eve Dallas reader, I would recommend this one. Excellent and outstanding.

Great book! Hard to stop reading with all the twists and turns. Eve and Rourke make such a good team and the stories always pull me in leaving me wanting more! Excellent book !

Well-written mystery. Got a little bogged down in procedure toward the end but it was a big op so I guess that's allowed.

Loved this latest offering in the In Death series. This one of very focused on the case and mostly takes place at the stations or working the case. Somerset gets to take a breather in this one as we don’t see a lot of him. We get a little bit of Mavis but it’s a big deal.The story here is cleverly plotted out and twisty-turny. What starts as a likely crime of passion murder turns into so much more...horrifyingly more. And so much of the writing parallels as social commentary. The description of this cult and its followers/believers, while supposedly religious based here has an eerily familiar ring to it.What is really freaky is how much of it turns out to be prescient. And the coincidence of release day being the day of the actual start to the second impeachment trial is something else.I continue to be amazed that Robb can still turn out such great stories after so much time. The world building and character development is true master class status. Any author seeking to develop and maintain a series that follows the same characters over the long haul needs to do a deep dive study of JD Robb’s work from Naked in Death (1995) to Faithless in Death (2021). 52 full length novels plus a bunch of novellas. It is my all time favorite series and I have read and listened to them all over and over again. I can’t say enough about this world, these characters or this storytelling.

Dallas, Roark and the gang just keep knocking it out of the park. Dallas and Roark are family, the whole squad are. I dont know how Robb does it,but ihope teresa another 50 Dallas books.

This book was so intense I didn’t want to put it down. The more I read her books the more books I want to order. All in good time!

There were a few books that made me question if the series was dying, but these last few have really brought back my hope. This one started a little slow but the build up was so worth it. So happy to fall in love with Dallas and the crew again!

Great

Mais um livro da série incrível! E mais um capítulo da vida pessoal dos personagens.

I love the Series!What I loved about the first 15 or so books in the Eve Dallas series was the combination of suspense, action and of course the romance between the characters. There’s less intensity in the latest books though. I look forward to seeing what happens next!

This book, as the previous one, concentrates more on relationships and solid detective work than on the blood and gore. Absolutely enjoyed it 👍

I could not put it down. Cracking story. Will have to reread again as I will need another fix. I just don't know how she thinks these plots up.