Creation in Death (Hardcover)

by J.D. Robb (Author) "EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE, EVE THOUGHT, LIFE was really worth living..." (more)
Key Phrases: sick bastard, comp screen, wrist unit, New York, Gia Rossi, Ariel Greenfeld (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
At 27 books and counting, Nora Roberts is more prolific under her Robb pseudonym than most authors manage in a single career. Yet the latest in her not-so-near-future detective series featuring New York Police Det. Eve Dallas offers a satisfyingly novel mélange of suspense, sex, forensics and heroics. It's 2060, and the serial killer nicknamed The Groom is back in town after an absence of nine years, resuming his horrific run of kidnapping, torturing and killing young women. Dallas, who served as a detective in the frustrating first investigation, assumes lead role in this one. This time, not only do the killer's chosen victims have ties to Dallas's husband, Roarke, but Dallas herself may be the killer's ultimate target. Swiftly paced, the story cuts frequently from the investigation to the killer's progress with his victims. Dallas works to outplan, outfight and outsmart the killer; to keep her handsome, rich husband happy; and to be ready for the next round after a good night's sleep. Robb's latest is bound to please Dallas fans. (Nov.)
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Review
All the elements of a terrific police procedural coupled with gut- searing emotional drama and in-your-face characters that only a writer of Nora Roberts' caliber can deliver.
— David Baldacci

Whether she writes as J.D. Robb or under her own name, I love Nora Roberts. She is a woman who just doesn’t know how to tell a bad story. Creation in Death is an authentic page turner, with Eve Dallas—tough as nails and still sexy as hell—pitted against one of the year’s creepiest super villains. If you haven’t read Robb, this is a great place to start.
— Stephen King

"Anchored by terrific characters, sudden twists that spin the whole narrative on a dime, and a thrills-to-chills ratio that will raise the neck hairs of even the most jaded reader, the J.D. Robb books are the epitome of great popular fiction."
—Dennis Lehane

“There's no such thing as too much Nora Roberts. All the books are good, and they keep getting better. Creation in Death, written in her J.D. Robb persona, is a complete pleasure. Wonderful!”
—Robert B. Parker

“Compelling characters, absorbing mysteries and a wonderful sense of both time and place, JD Robb's "In Death" novels are can't-miss pleasures.”
—Harlan Coben

“Creation in Death is a witty, dark, page-turning tale of futuristic crime fighting. Raymond Chandler meets Blade Runner meets Silence of the Lambs. The techno-toys may change, but evil never does.”
—Jonathan Kellerman

“J.D. Robb (you-know-who!) has written a taut, nerve-jangling, thriller that draws the reader in from the start and rolls you over the dancing ball bearings of a futuristic police procedural that moves seamlessly and unrelentingly forward. The quality of the prose and the sharpness of the dialogue will delight and even surprise the reader. I know it did me. AS IF she needed it: but now she has yet another loyal fan.”
—Ridley Pearson


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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Adult; First Edition, First Printing edition (November 6, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399154361
• ISBN-13: 978-0399154362
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (95 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #223,458 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This is item 25 in The In Death Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Latest installment satisfyingly up to the best of this fine series, November 6, 2007

By	R. B. Bernstein "R. B. Bernstein, Adjunct Pro... (Brooklyn, New York USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

J. D. Robb's "in Death" series of futuristic mysteries featuring Lt. Eve Dallas of the NYPSD should be much better known, for Robb has managed to meet the rigorous standard set and defined by the greatest writer of science-fiction mysteries, Isaac Asimov. This latest volume, CREATION IN DEATH, is no exception, and ranks among the best of this fine series.

Robb is remarkably skilled at creating a future world -- New York City in 2060, after the "Urban Wars" (which feature well in the plot). She also creates believable characters of all kinds -- heroes, villains, supporting players, and extras -- to inhabit this convincing setting. She never resorts to springing information on the reader without which he or she can't solve the case; everything is carefully and painstakingly set up with total fairness. Also, she never resorts to gimmickry to solve crimes or to save heroes from certain doom. These are first-rate mysteries, first-rate science-fiction novels, and the romantic suspense elements are neatly woven into the story.

This is a serial-killer novel in which the killer is terrifyingly real, with motivations and attitudes that are at once alien to "normal" people yet one klick away from the range of behaviors and attitudes we all have seen or read about in people, normal and abnormal. The suspense is sustained so that this reader, at least, had to put the book aside at 2:00 a.m. to get some sleep when only 60 pages or so from the end. And it bears re-reading.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Exciting addition to addictive series, November 26, 2007

By	T. M. Wheaton "tmwheato" (Syracuse, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A serial killer who had eluded the NYSPD nine years ago has returned. Feeney was the primary investigator back then and Eve was a newly minted detective and his partner. The fact that the killer escaped clean to go ply his trade in other cities and countries has sat bitterly with not only Eve and Feeney but with Morris the coroner, Whitney the chief and even Berenski the lab tech.

Now, nine years later he is back, doing exactly what he did before in his same MO. The cops of the NYSPD have a chance for redemption. Eve is tagged as the primary investigator and hits the ground running with her usual band of co-horts: Peabody, McNabb, Feeney, Baxter, Trueheart and of course Roarke. Even Trina, the scary hairdresser plays a part that surprisingly does not involved terrifying Eve with grooming products. And we get introduced to a few new characters such as the sassy e-girl Callender.

What I liked the most about this story is the pacing. Robb writes the book just like what it is, a race against time. The pacing and the tension ratchets up so as you read it you feel the same sense of urgency that the characters on the page feel. It is a nice effect and Robb does a good job with that. Another nice touch is that there is quite a bit of it shown from Roarke's POV. And Robb does a nice job of flipping the script a bit from some of the previous books. Whenever Roarke gets involved with Eve's job it is done in their home on his turf, but she takes him out of his comfort zone and puts them all at the police dept. almost around the clock. You can see Roarke struggle a bit as he is working in a place that is alien to him. Nice touch there.

I knock off a star because of the whole mother/female figure that the perp is killing over and over again. Robb has drunk from this well a little too many times before.

22 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Eve, December 19, 2007

By	Kara J. Jorges "Avid Reader" (Minneapolis) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

New York Police & Security Department's Lieutenant Eve Dallas is enjoying a quiet night at home watching a mindless movie with her perfect husband Roarke when a call comes in. Eve is surprised, as she is not even on call, but rushes to the murder scene of a young woman, knowing something is up, and is it ever. A serial killer known as "the Groom," who slipped through the NYPSD's fingers nine years before, seems to be back. He tortures his female victims to death, then lays their bodies out in a public place after placing a silver ring on one of their fingers. The police had believed the Groom had either died or gone to prison on other charges when his victims stopped appearing, but Eve's investigation uncovers similar crimes in other cities around the world. She has to stop him, which isn't going to be easy, as he leaves almost no clues.

This might have been a good story, but it got to be too much of just about everything bad, and not enough of the things I've grown to love this series for. I realize this is a murder mystery series, but it struck me that New York of 2060 must have more serial killers per capita than any other place on earth EVER. This is the umpteenth serial killer Eve has chased, and I doubt it will be the last. Usually, solving Eve's cases with her is fun, with banter all around with all the recurring characters. This time out, however, there was very little of that, and what there was felt almost forced. Instead, we spent time I would rather not have spent with our killer and his victims. I read murder mysteries because I enjoy the unraveling of the motives of the murderer; I do not read them because I enjoy getting inside the sick mind of a person who gets off on causing pain and degradation, and dwelling on the process. This book not only spent far too much time inside the mind of the killer, it also delved into the fear and pain of his victim, and I just don't want to go there. I don't need those images burned in my brain. I know there is a market for that kind of book, but I have deliberately not included any of them in my collection, and hope very much that this is not a new direction this series is taking.

That was not the only issue with this book, however. I have grown to like and admire Eve Dallas very much because I have gotten to know her by being places with her while she's doing her thing. We all know Roarke loves her to distraction, and for good reason. What I don't need is a constant reminder of how amazing she is. I've always hated reading books where the author seems overly enamored of a character and gushes about how great they are because I can never quite go along for the ride. It's better when the character can just be who they are and let us like them or not on their own merits, not because we've been told we should. Eve Dallas books are usually that way, but this time out, Nora felt it necessary to hammer it home.

Another thing I'm really, really tired of is Eve never getting any sleep. We all know she's dedicated to her job, but come on. In this book, she might have had a total of four hours stretched over several days, probably because I guess she's the only detective on the NYPSD who's amazing enough to solve a case. It's one thing to pull an all-nighter or get awakened by a phone call, but in this book it was way, way overdone. Eve couldn't stop working because she had a killer to catch before he could kill again. But would it hurt to let her get a few hours of sleep now and then? I found myself feeling worn down because of it.

This is one of the best mystery series I read, and the author has done a wonderful job of mixing it up, giving us a different type of mystery for Eve to solve each time out. One book will be a single crime of passion, and the next might be a serial killer, followed by something different in the next. Other reviewers have complained about these books getting too hard, too focused on the gore, and I thought they were wimps. After this, however, I find myself reluctantly joining their ranks. It isn't a bad book; it's just not the best of this series. It's almost as if the author forced it along in a hurry, and focused on all the wrong things. I look forward to the next Eve Dallas novel simply because I love this series, but I hope the magic is back next time. It was almost completely absent in this book.