Gwen’s Review of Born in Death by J.D. Robb
Romantic suspense audio book published by Brilliance Audio
Read by Susan Ericksen

This is one of the latest of the In Death series by J.D. Robb, a.k.a. Nora Roberts.  I ‘read’ it out of sequence by listening to Innocent In Death first, but that didn’t keep me from enjoying this book.  As always, it was a sterling performance by Susan Ericksen.  If you have any doubt to the quality of her work, please listen to the sample posted at the Brilliance site. 

Here’s the book blurb:

 Technology has advanced in 2060 New York City, but childbirth has been the same since the beginning of time. And despite the brutal double homicide on Lieutenant Eve Dallas’s caseload, she has to be there for her pregnant friend Mavis, even if it means throwing the dreaded baby shower. . .

But Mavis needs an even bigger favor now. Tandy Willowby, one of the moms-to-be in her class, has gone missing, just days before her due date – not even showing up at the shower at Eve and Roarke’s place that she’d been looking forward to so much. A recent emigrant from London, Tandy has few friends in New York, and no family. When Eve enters Tandy’s apartment and finds Mavis’s shower gift wrapped and ready on the table – and Tandy’s packed hospital bag still on the floor – her spine starts tingling.

Normally, this would be turned over to Missing Persons. Eve has more than enough on her plate trying to find out who murdered Natalie Copperfield and her fiancé, both employed at a highly prestigious accounting firm. But Mavis wants no one but Eve on the case – and Eve can’t say no. She’ll have to track Tandy down while tracing the deals and double-crosses hidden in the files of some of the city’s richest and most secretive citizens, in a race against a particularly vicious killer. Luckily, she has her multimillionaire husband Roarke’s expertise to help with the numbers-crunching. But as he mines for the crucial data that will break the case wide open, Eve faces an all-too-real danger in the flesh-and-blood world.

Read an excerpt.

I love Eve.  She reacts to her friend’s pregnancy and birth  exactly the way I did before I had my daughter.  I must admit that throughout my pregnancy and my daughter’s birth, it felt a little weird.  It was a bit Alien-ish in my mind – I mean, there was this PERSON growing inside me and, I mean, (don’t click on this link while eating) YIKES!  Being pregnant was just so Body Snatchers – I never had that “Earth Mother” feeling.  Does that make me a bad mom?  No – just one who watches too many movies.  🙂

In this book, Eve has to juggle solving a double murder and keeping Mavis from exploding into hormonal tears over a missing friend.  Eve being Eve, can’t face a sad, hormonal, pregnant Mavis, so she agrees to find the friend.  It’s not a big surprise when the two (three?) cases become related, nor is the culprit a big surprise, but the arrest is still a fun scene.

This is yet another very good In Death book.  The audio performance excellent.  The book excellent – very much more by way of personal story development than others in the series.  The abridgement was so good as to be unnoticeable.  I mean, what can I say?  It was excellent!  And, oh by the way, I want Roarke like an addict wants a fix!

Grade:  Book B+ (they’re always too short) and Audio performance A