Customer Reviews

Origin in Death (In Death #21)

5 star:		(69)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

While Nora Roberts (aka J.D. Robb) seems to be paling a bit in her romance novel genre, the In Death series is getting better and better with each subsequent book.

Origin in Death starts with a bang: The ugly, possibly professional murder of a Nobel Prize winning doctor and scientist, Dr. Icove, he of the famed Icove Center, plastic surgery hub for the rich and famous. Before the blood is even dry, so to speak, Icove's son, who co-runs the tony clinic, is murdered as well, in the same way.

It's up to Eve, cop extraordinaire, to get to the bottom of the murders and figure out what's behind the "too perfect" profiles of the two Icoves and their clinic. What she finds is beyond human imagination, even in the year 2059, where this novel takes place.

Along the way, Eve's husband Roarke painfully tries to plan a Thanksgiving dinner/reunion for his recently discovered huge Irish family; Mavis, near the end of her pregnancy, reminds a horrified Eve and Roarke that they are to be birth coaches, and Peabody and McNabb continue to cohabit in bliss. There are some really funny moments in this book, and the mystery and eventual solution are "prime," as McNabb would say. A winner!

A saint has been murdered, someone that no one should want to kill. With a mystery so baffling, Eve Dallas is the only cop that can handle the case, and she dives right in. Immediately, she becomes aware that something is off about Dr. Icove Sr.'s death. Every clue she is able to wrest from the case confirms this, especially when Dr. Icove Jr. is also murdered. Soon, she is sure that the doctors were not as lily white as their mourners would have them believed to be, but tarnishing the memories of such sterling citizens has its own dangers. Once she learns what the two victims were perpetuating, Eve is not so sure that the killer was a villain, yet her duty is clearly delineated by the law. With her ever expanding cadre of supporting cast members, Eve Dallas faces her most emotionally charged case yet. Readers will also get to see something truly rare; Eve completely terrified.

***** Though set in the future, this book is extremely relevant to the present time. Despite the tension, or perhaps because of it, wry humor infuses this story, as it does every Eve Dallas book. Eve's ensemble of characters continues to expand, adding depth to the heroine and her world. Roarke is in the book, so to long time readers, need I say more. The chance to re-encounter him is worth the time to read the book, but every page is a reason as well. Not one word is a waste of time in this series. *****

Reviewed by Amanda Killgore, Freelance Reviewer.

Dr. Wilifred Icove, A famous reconstructive surgeon is murdered cooly and efficiently - a scalpel to the heart - right in his office.

Soon after, the surgeon's son, WIll Jr., is also murdered in the exact same manner. Was it the beautiful woman seen leaving the good Dr.'s premises right before his death? Was Will junior's wife involved?

Through police procedure Eve and her trusty band of sidekicks (Peabody, McNabb, Feeney, Baxter, et. al) begin to delve into the background of the two doctors and find more than they bargain for.

I was severely disappointed in the last Eve Dalls book. I felt that Nora Roberts had drawn from a well that she had visited many times. Not so this book. If you're familiar with the series, you'll recognize another one of her favorite themes, the God-complected doctor. But this one is nicely different from her others.

The book begins like many of the others: a murder happens, Eve investigates and calls in her team, and begins to throw around theories. ABout half way through, this book takes off and doesn't look back. The story is tightly plotted and the mystery unravels with some great suspense and exciting revelations. The core of the story is really quite creepy (but in a shivery good way) and the ending just downright popcorn chomping exciting!

Outside of the mystery, a secondary plot is Roarke and Eve are planning Thanksgiving dinner. Roarke's Irish relatives come to visit and they've invited the whole gang (including Charles the LC and Crack, the owner of the Down and Dirty). My one regret about the whole story is that we don't get to see that dinner happen.

Excellent.

For the past couple of decades Nora Roberts, writing as J.D. Robb, quietly has been creating one of the most consistently intriguing series of police procedural fiction. Collectively these novels are known as the "Death" series due to the appearance of that word in each title. The series itself --- which centers on New York City police lieutenant Eve Dallas in the mid-21st century --- straddles and blurs the genres of mystery, speculative fiction, and romantic suspense. Robb does this exceptionally well, adding a statistic here and a romantic interlude there, just so you know where you are and why. But the focus is mystery and suspense. She is not the first to do something like this --- Isaac Asimov wrote futuristic detective stories and Larry Niven's Gil Hamilton stories are unforgettable --- but Robb's work stands with these stalwarts, as opposed to within their respective long and deep shadows.

ORIGIN IN DEATH is Robb's latest work and arguably her best to date. It begins with the murders of Dr. Wilfred B. Icove, Sr. and Jr., an oft-lauded father and son who are known as pioneers in the fields of cosmetic and reconstructive surgery. Both men are found murdered --- one in his office, one at home --- in identical fashion. Dallas intuits that the "why" of these killings is at least as important as the "how" given that the older gentleman was known as "Dr. Perfect" and had a record that was spotlessly clean.

Dallas does what she does best, kicking over rocks both literal and figurative to see what comes crawling out. She is ably assisted by her friend Peabody and the seemingly immutable Roarke, her doting husband. A self-made billionaire, Roarke is a genius combination of Midas and James Bond, a Santa Claus with a seemingly bottomless sack of technological goodies who has enough connections to appear to be literally anywhere and to ascertain anything.

Dallas's tenaciousness and Roarke's resources eventually uncover not only the motive but also the perpetrator behind the deaths of the Icoves --- and in so doing find a quiet horror that puts Dallas in an ethical dilemma for which there is no easy solution.

Robb's ability to merge mystery and speculation is displayed at its finest here. Those who are unfamiliar with the series and who might be otherwise intimidated by a protagonist who has been the subject of multiple novels need not worry. Robb offers just enough to bring new readers up to speed and drops just enough references to encourage a look at her backlist. ORIGIN IN DEATH, however, is a marvelous place to start.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts) does it again. This is one of the best in the series. This book grabs you by the throat on page one and never lets you go till the very last page. This is not your typical romance and in fact all of my family fight over who gets to read the books first. This includes my husband and son. In this book of the series, not only do the sci-fi aspects get more detailed but the character growth of both Eve and Roake are great. While Eve is dealing with the murder of two Dr's that most thought were saints and butting heads with Mira about that issue. Roake is dealing with his relatives and his new found feelings about them coming to visit him in New York. This one has a little bit of everything and you will love it. I read it in one sitting and recommend you don't pick it up till you have time to read it all. Definatly a book you can't put down. I just wish she would write them faster. I loved it!!!!

I finished reading Origin in Death and I am thankful that it was better than the wreck that was Survivor in Death. As other readers have mentioned, this book is the most sci-fi of all the ID books. I cannot say that I loved the content of the murder mystery but J.D. Robb is definitely back on her game. I was so engrossed in the plot to find out who killed both Dr. Icoves and why that I finished the book in one day. Origin definitely had the witty banter between Peabody and Eve that we've come to expect. Throw in visits from Louise, Charles, Trina, a very pregnant Mavis, and Roarke's relatives, and you got yourself an all around good book. My only complaint is that the murders and Eve's cop work took too much away from the development of Roarke's relatives coming to visit from Ireland. I would have loved to see what happened at Thanksgiving dinner. I cannot wait for Memory in Death. That looks to be a good one!

Here's why I loved Origin in Death: the author provides an eclectic mix of murder, humor, cutting edge technology, delightfully masked philosophical discussion about the same, and family and personal relationships to create a fabulous novel.

The In Death series is supposed to be futuristic; however, Origin in Death says the future is now! The novel opens with the same hook that pulls us into many of J.D. Robb's In Death stories; it opens with a murder. That, however, is just the staging ground for the wonderful work that follows and which includes so much more than murder.

As one reads on, awareness creeps up until the reader is caught up in the wonder and horror of it all. How will we, as a society, deal with the actualization of the technology that is at the core of this novel? Suddenly, Robb forces us to confront the philosophical questions about the nature of being and the soul.

As if that were not enough, we've also to deal with how Eve will cope with the idea of family. In presenting Eve with this dilemma, Robb continues to develop Eve and Roarke as characters, to give them even more complexity that transcends their own immediate relationship and that of the intimate circle of friends. In a sense, it looks forward to the issue that Robb has indicated will never happen ... Eve and babies.

The verbal legerdemain, as ever, is part of this novel, and it adds belly laughs in spite of the horror.

All in all, a fabulous read that's worth every penny.

This book has a prologue which is very scary and mysterious. At first the reader is unsure of the connection to the main plot but it will soon become apparent what nefarious activities are at the core of the subplot.

Eve Dallas and Delia Peabody, partners, are investigating a celebrity murder case in which the murderer is a famous vid star who was severely beaten before she was able to kill her attacker. They get a short interview with her at the Wilfred B. Icove Center for Reconstructive and Cosmetic Surgery as she will need massive surgery especially on her face to repair the destruction. She confesses and it looks like a clear case of self-defense - case closed. However, before they can leave the center's founder, Wilfred B. Icove, Senior, is discovered with a scalpel jabbed straight into his heart. His son,Wilfred Jr., also a surgeon at the center, is overcome with grief as is Wilfred Jr.'s wife, Avril, their two children and everyone at the center and around the country. The senior Wilfred was known for his charity work, donations, work during the "Urban Wars" and other philanthropic acts.

The security tapes show a beautiful woman as his last appointment. She gave her name as Dolores Nocho-Alverez but this turns out to be a fake identity. There follows much investigation by EDD - our favorites Feeney and McNab - as well as Roarke and Peabody and even Nadine Furst supplying valuable research. But all they can get is some hints of affiliation with research labs and a college, Brookhollow Academy. Eve knows something more is beneath the surface of "Dr. Perfect" as she doesn't buy it that anyone human is that perfect. Eve gets a warrant to look at Wilfred Jr.'s home and computers and as she and her people from NYSPD get to the residence, they discover that the son has been killed the same way! No tapes or vids or who or how. The wife is in the Hamptons and well alibied. The mystery has deepened but now coincidences and slowly more and more clues are beginning to lead Eve, Roarke, and the rest of her staff on a journey of intrigue, lies, deceptions and the most outrageous of crimes.

To lighten up this very dark and tough story is some family and comic relief, Roark has invited his newly discovered relatives, Aunt Sinead and brood, to have Thanksgiving dinner and stay for a few days at their home. Eve is happy for him but she is not used to family or kids or babies so how she copes with them and they with her makes for some laughs. I hope Ms. Roberts will give us the Thanksgiving dinner scene in the next book as I really want to know how that comes off with all those friends that Eve has also invited.

The conclusion to the story was very satisfying and felt like the right thing had been done and justice served!

I freely admit I love this series. There are wonderful relationships, humor, great dialogue, a well-done sense of time and place, a bit of passion and excellent suspense. I also feel her books are becoming less romantic suspense and more mystery. It's still there, but this had shades of Robin Cook or Tess Gerritsen. For me, it was a very good read.

While Eve Dallas and her partner Peabody are interviewing a witness at the Wilfred B. Icove Center for Reconstructive and Cosmetic Surgery, the body of Dr. Wilfred B. Icove, Sr. is discovered. Due to the way Icove was murdered, Eve suspects a professional hit by the last person to come in contact with Dr. Icove, a mysterious young woman. As Eve investigates, she begins to suspect that there is something off about Dr. Icove's practice, and when his son is found murdered in the same manner as the father, Eve delves deeper into the doctors' pasts. What she discovers not only sickens but shocks Eve, who, with the help of her husband, Roarke, intends to put a stop to a secretive illegal, immoral, and unethical scientific experiment that involves cloning.

J.D. Robb aka Nora Roberts has written an engaging thriller here about a subject that is presently being debated among the scientific community and which, due to DNA advancements, may very well come to pass. Eve's edgy manner of dealing with people, balanced by Roarke's understanding and love and Peabody's perky demeanor, continue to bring freshness to a well-grounded series.