Customer Reviews

Bump in the Night

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I automatically buy all of J.D. Robb's books so this was a no-brainer purchase for me. Robb kickstarts this anthology with "Haunted in Death", another detective story involving Lieutenant Eve Dallas and her husband Roarke. The year is 2060 and Eve is investigating the murder of Radcliff C. Hopkins III at Number Twelve, a building that that reportedly been haunted since the disappearance of Bobbie Bray 85 years ago. Bobbie's skeleton is found near Radcliff's body and the murder weapon, a gun (considered unusual in 2060), is the same for both murders. Eve is very pragmatic and doesn't believe in ghosts despite the cold chill and mysterious voices she hears in Number Twelve. The ending is a bit unusual for a J.D. Robb story but I was not disappointed.

In "Poppy's Coin" by Mary Blayney, a young girl is told a story of a magic coin and true love occurring in 1817. David Lindsay has returned from the war with honor but no money and two children to raise (only one of whom may be his child). His daughter gives him a magic coin and he wishes for prosperous employment. Shortly afterwards, a wealthy widow, Lady Grace Anderson, hires him to be her escort at all the Society events as she doesn't want the hassle of men courting her. The story is a sweet romance with only a tinge of the paranormal.

Ruth Ryan Langan's "The Passenger" explores the mystery behind Spirit Lake with its history of boats and planes disappearing and lights of unknown origin appearing. Grace Marin is a photojournalist who is at Spirit Lake to document the happenings there. Josh Cramer is an adventure junkie whose next journey is a trek through the wilderness, starting at Spirit Lake. While flying to his starting point, he notices a stowaway passenger just before his plane crashes. Grace sees the crash and rescues him. Together, they find true love while experiencing the mysteries at Spirit Lake.

"Mellow Lemon Yellow" by Mary Kay McComas is one of the more unique stories I have read. Charlotte is the stereotypical accountant until her childhood imaginary friend, Mel, resurfaces at her father's viewing. Mel teaches Charlotte how to break out of her monotony and find that spark within her that wants to go scuba diving, wear stylish clothes, and find true love. She finally meets Sam and it's a sweet ending to a story about a woman's personal growth.

Overall, this was a good anthology and definitely worth reading. I'm not sure the title fit the type of stories in the book but all four stories were very enjoyable. Definitely a recommended read!

I'm a HUGE Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb fan. I've read all of Robb's In Death books and always look forward to the latest release. Haunted in Death was enjoyable, but left a lot to be desired... where was Summerset and McNab and Feeney? She has built so much character into these characters that a person misses them when they're not there!

The two middle stories were ok but not memorable.

The fourth story - Mellow Lemon Yellow - was the worst story I've ever read. In my opinion, the book is very elementary. Did anyone notice Mary Kay McComas' incorrect use of the word "then"? I counted at least 3 times where she used "then" when she should've used "than". Doesn't anyone check grammar anymore? You'd think a prominent writer would be grammatically correct.

As a huge fan of J.D. Robb, I knew I would buy this book for her story alone. While it was an okay short story, it's not great. In my opinion, both of the other short stories that Robb has done in other anthologies adds something to the overall "mystique" of the In Death series.

I couldn't read the second story (Poppy's Coin). No interest.

Both The Passenger and Mellow Lemon Yellow were interesting reads. Of course, throughout the entire reading of Mellow Lemon Yellow, I kept thinking about the movie "Drop Dead Fred" which explores a similar premise.

Overall, enjoyable and easy reading.

Since other reviewers have given a summary of each story, I will try to add to what has already been said instead of repeating the storylines.

"Haunted in Death" provides the Eva Dallas fix for all of us J. D. Robb lovers. The somewhat paranormal flair is almost believable seeing that Eve is our doubting Thomas when it comes to the 85 year old ghost of Bobbie Bray and her never-ending battle to uncover the mystery surrounding the death of Radcliff Hopkins. This by far was the best story in the book.

"Poppy's Coin" was a somewhat enjoyable fairy tale story except no other reviewers seemed to pick up on the fact that the storyteller starts out in London on April of 2006 and ends in March 2007. This storytelling was to span a few hours, not a year. Very poor writing and even worse editing. Plus the ending of the narrative and the parallel of the coin confused me. I couldn't understand if the woman to whom the story of David and Grace was being told was married to Jim (?) who she was supposed to meet at the pub in the beginning of the story and at the end of the tale-telling. Was this Jim a goner because of her wish or just what that was all about?????? Can someone help, please?

"The Passenger" was just okay. Nothing to get excited about and all too corny for my taste. The ghost of Spirit Lake turning out to be who she says she is and then actually talking to and relaying bloodlines to Grace Marin and Josh Cramer (our primary characters). This scenario was a little too much even for a paranormal story and the conclusion was the ordinary, child-like, happily-ever-after, totally make-believe ending.

"Mellow Lemon Yellow" was different and amusing and I guess next to Haunted in Death, was my preferred reading. It was a cute idea to drum up this lovable imaginary and quite real friend. Charlotte Gibson was a likeable enough character but I think "Mel" was even more likeable.

All in all, I wouldn't knock myself out to go out and read these stories.

Novelettes for the beach, perhaps. These are 4 novelettes (or novellas, I've never really been able to tell the difference) written especially for this collection. Many people will see this book pop up because they've purchased other J.D. Robb books, and if you are someone who is collecting every single bit of the "In Death" series, then I suppose you'll need this one. However, it's not really a very good story in the series. The theme of the book being "paranormal" stories, Robb has to try to fit something spooky into Eve's normally rational and scientific world, and frankly, I don't find that it fits well. The story and the plot itself depend entirely on things that could have happened in 2006 as easily as 2060; the part that's supposed to make it 2060 is that the murder has been done with a gun, and guns are quite rare in 2060, so that the other detectives and the medical examiner's office are not familiar with gunshot wounds. But the entire story could have been written without the paranormal element supposedly being there, or set in any year in the modern era, and would have been almost exactly the same.

The second story in the book is a Regency romance, with a brief modern frame around it, and about the only paranormal element is the "magic coin" upon which our protagonists in the Regency era, and then our protagonist in the modern era, make wishes. Since I like the Regency era, I actually enjoyed this story more than the J.D. Robb story that called my attention to the book; the Regency story is a better representative of its kind than the Robb is of its series. It may be a disappointment to some because the paranormal element is so small; if you are thinking to buy this book because you are specifically interested in paranormal phenomena, you probably won't find enough here to be satisfying.

In short, by having people who usually write in specific subgenres and specific time periods try to add something paranormal to their stories, it lowers the quality of both the period pieces and the paranormal elements.

I, like many others, bought this book for the J.D. Robb story. The story was OK. Paranormal happenings just don't seem to work in the Eve Dallas universe, but this story was much, MUCH better than the remaining 3.

Poppy's Coin was an alright story. I like history stories like this. So I didn't mind this particular one (although the paranormal aspects were a bit of a stretch).

The Passenger was contrived, predictable, and boring. The characters were not engaging, the plot was laughable, and I just didn't care what happened in the end.

Mellow Lemon Yellow was by far the worst story I've ever read. I skimmed through most of the story because I kept rolling my eyes at every other sentence. I just thought this story was too ridiculous. I couldn't even find humour in it. Just a complete waste of time. (I, too, found the similarities to Drop Dead Fred. Except Drop Dead Fred had one or two moments of fun, this one had NONE). I can't express how much I absolutely HATED this story.

Buy the book for the J.D. Robb story, or wait until she publishes her story on its own. The other three authors did not make me want to rush out and buy any more of their books.

I loved the J.D. Robb story but somehow I was expecting more from the other authors. I was disappointed and if it weren't for J.D. Robb I never would have bought this book.

I purchased this book for #26 in the In Death Series.
In story number one, we have Haunted in Death. The year is 2060 and Eve is investigating the murder of Radcliff C. Hopkins III at a building that that been haunted since the disappearance of Bobbie Bray 85 years ago. Bobbie's skeleton is found near Radcliff's body and the murder weapon is the same for both murders. I thought the idea of this story was excellent and very unusual, however it was missing something to me. Still good but not perfect.
In the second story,Poppy's Coin a young girl is told a story of a magic coin and true love occurring in 1817. David Lindsay comes home from war with two children to raise, only one might be his. His daughter gives him a magic coin and he wishes for employment. Soon after a wealthy widow hires him to be her escort at all the Society events. This story is nice and entertaining.
In the third story,The Passenger, Grace is a photojournalist documenting strange happenings on Spirit Lake. Where boats and planes are known to disappear and strange lights appear. Josh is an adventurer, his next stop, Spirit Lake. While flying he notices a stowaway passenger just before his plane crashes. Grace sees the crash and rescues him. Another entertaining read.
In the last story,Mellow Lemon Yellow, Charlotte comes face to face with her childhood imaginary friend at her fathers funeral. Mel teaches her how to live life fully. She meets Sam and it's a nice ending to a good story.
This is a good book and each story is unique and enjoyable. I just expected a different kind of paranormal from the title Bump in the Night.

I read everything written by Nora Roberts and her pseudonym, JD Robb, and this novella, "Haunted in Death" goes on my shelf right along with all the others.

That being said, I will likely never read the other stories in here again; they were well-written, but mostly uninteresting, and far too different from the one story I bought the book for. Still, you can't get everything, and not every anthology can be an all-round winner. "Haunted in Death" is, in my mind, worth the cost of the book all on its own.

I bought the book just to read the J.D. Robb story. Unfortunately, Robb should've named the story Distracted in Death. It reads more like a basic outline which has not been fleshed out and provided with emotional depth and intensity. When Robb gives short shrift to the usual description of Roarke and passes him off as "handsome," then let the reader understand that Robb, who is beautifully prolific with figurative language, is not really paying attention to the local color necessary to transform Distracted in Death into a fine story called Haunted in Death.

The story is defined by its absences. Summerset, Mavis, Nadine, McNabb. Though it is true that all of these don't have to people an ...in Death story for it to come alive, these add levels of interest and connectedness that make the series unmatchable. Thus, their absence here is noticeable, especially given the quality of Midnight in Death, in comparison to which Distracted in Death is lacking.

Thus, Distracted in Death is just going through the motions of being a J.D. Robb story. It does not meet the level of excellence of its predecessors, though it had potential to do exactly that.