Gwen’s review of Innocent in Death by J.D. Robb
Suspense audiobook CD published 20 Feb 07 by Brilliance Audio
Reader: Susan Ericksen

This is one of the “near future” Eve Dallas romantic suspense novels by J.D. Robb, a.k.a. Nora Roberts, and it’s my favorite so far.  In this book Eve is perplexed by many things in her life:  Valentine’s Day, babies, her husband’s old girlfriends, and a death at a private school in NYC.  I’m happy to report that by the end of the book Eve resolves her bewilderment concerning nearly all of those subjects, and, if you have read any other Eve Dallas novels, you know which ones still confuse her and it ain’t death or old flames.

Here’s the book blurb:

The death of history teacher Craig Foster devastated his young wife, who’d sent him off to work that morning with a lovingly packed lunch. It shocked his colleagues at the Upper West Side private school. And as for the ten-year-old girls who found him in his classroom in a pool of bodily fluids, they may have been traumatized for life.

Lieutenant Eve Dallas, of course, is more hardened to murder cases. And this is clearly a murder case. That lovingly packed lunch was tainted with deadly ricin. And Mr. Foster’s colleagues, shocked as they may be, have some shocking secrets of their own. It’s Eve’s job to get a feel for all the potential suspects, and find out why someone would have done this to a man who seemed so inoffensive, so pleasant…so innocent.

Now Magdelana Percell – there’s someone Eve can picture as a murder victim. Possibly at Eve’s own hands. The slinky blonde – an old flame of her billionaire husband, Roarke, from his days on the wrong side of the law – has turned up in New York, and she’s anything but innocent. Unfortunately, Roarke seems blind to Magdelana’s manipulation, but not to her shapely figure and flirtatious ways. And he insists that the occasional lunch or business meeting with her is nothing to worry about…and none of Eve’s business. Eve’s so unnerved by the situation that she finds it hard to focus on the Foster case. Still, she’ll have to put aside her anger, jealousy, and heartbreak, for a while at least – because another man has just turned up dead, and the case is taking some strange turns and hitting some frustrating dead ends.

Eve knows all too well that innocence can be a façade. Keeping that in mind may help her solve this case at last. But it may also tear apart her marriage.

Read an excerpt.

This book rocked for me.  There was finally a “chink” in the armor that was Eve and Roarke’s relationship.  I literally cheered when Eve settled things with both Roarke and Maggie.  It was a moment in the book that was worth all the heartache I felt for them until that point.

The killer was telegraphed a bit early – at least it was for me – but that didn’t detract from the drama.  And you can seriously see this killer coming back and settling things with Eve somehow, or at least trying.  The killer will have plenty of time to think about it.

The audio performance by Susan Ericksen was excellent.  She sounded exactly the way I thought Eve should sound.  Her Irish accent for Roarke was wonderful and her male characters didn’t sound silly (a risk for female voice actors doing adult male characters).  An excellent performance all around and I hope to hear her do more JD Robb books.

All in all, this was an excellent book and vocal performance.  The abridgement didn’t detract from this book nor did it leave me wondering what I missed.  I would definitely recommend this to my fellow road warriors looking for a good few hours of good entertainment.

Grade: (Audio performance) A, (Book) A