May 9th, 2025
Home | Log in!

On Top Shelf
INK ALL NIGHTINK ALL NIGHT
Fresh Pick
THE GREEK HOUSE
THE GREEK HOUSE

New Books This Week

Reader Games


The books of May are here—fresh, fierce, and full of feels.

Slideshow image


Since your web browser does not support JavaScript, here is a non-JavaScript version of the image slideshow:

slideshow image
Wedding season includes searching for a missing bride�and a killer . . .


slideshow image
Sometimes the path forward begins with a step back.


slideshow image
One island. Three generations. A summer that changes everything.


slideshow image
A snapshot made them legends. What it didn�t show could tear them apart.


slideshow image
This life coach will give you a lift!


slideshow image
A twisty, "addictive," mystery about jealousy and bad intentions


slideshow image
Trapped by magic, haunted by muses�she must master the cards before they�re lost to darkness.


slideshow image
Masquerades, secrets, and a forbidden romance stitched into every seam.


slideshow image
A vanished manuscript. A murdered expert. A castle full of secrets�and one sharp-witted sleuth.


Since your web browser does not support JavaScript, here is a non-JavaScript version of the image slideshow:

slideshow image
Two warrior angels. First friends, now lovers. Their future? A WILD UNKNOWN.


Abandoned in Death

Abandoned in Death, August 2022
In Death #54
by J.D. Robb

St. Martin's Paperbacks
Featuring: Roarke; Eve Dallas
384 pages
ISBN: 1250846951
EAN: 9781250846952
Kindle: B092T8K767
Mass Market Paperback / e-Book (reprint)
Add to Wish List


Purchase



"An intense visit with Dallas, Roark and the 'In Death' characters..."

Fresh Fiction Review

Abandoned in Death
J.D. Robb

Reviewed by Ruth Castleberry
Posted July 16, 2022

Thriller Crime | Romance Suspense

The first chapter of ABANDONED IN DEATH is a gruesome introduction to J. D. Robb’s 54th In Death book.  Then, there’s the fact that the dead woman is found on a playground bench with a note pinned to the body that reads “Bad Mommy.” The playground that Bella, the daughter of Eve Dallas’ closest friend Mavis, soon plans to call her own. 

The beginning of number 54 makes it challenging to read, even to want to continue. As usual, Eve consults with Dr. Mira, her consulting shrink, on this killer’s profile and quirks. The detective also deals with the demands for details from the TV reporter and her friend Nadine. The proximity of the crime scene to the new home of Mavis, Leonardo, and Bella necessitates connecting with Mavis to assure her the killer will be caught and warn her to be careful.

Around the precinct, Ms. Robb introduces new characters, and she updates what’s going on with the already familiar officers. Husband Roark also provides support as her investigation intensifies. Butler Sommerset and their cat Galahad welcome the couple when they finally make it home.

Ms. Robb writes an intense police procedural that comes off a little heavier than usual. The killer’s identity turns out to be quite a twist. ABANDONED IN DEATH is not for the fainthearted.

Learn more about Abandoned in Death

SUMMARY


The woman’s body was found in the early morning, on a bench in a New York City playground. She was clean, her hair neatly arranged, her makeup carefully applied. But other things were very wrong—like the tattoo and piercings, clearly new. The clothes, decades out of date. The fatal wound hidden beneath a ribbon around her neck. And the note: Bad Mommy, written in crayon as if by a child.

Eve Dallas turns to the department’s top profiler, who confirms what seems obvious to Eve: They’re dealing with a killer whose childhood involved some sort of trauma—a situation Eve is all too familiar with herself. Yet the clues suggest a perpetrator who’d be roughly sixty years old, and there are no records of old crimes with a similar MO. What was the trigger that apparently reopened such an old wound and sent someone over the edge?

When Eve discovers that other young women—who physically resemble the first victim—have vanished, the clock starts ticking louder. But to solve this case she will need to find her way into a hidden place of dim light and concrete, into the distant past, and into the cold depths of a shattered mind.


What do you think about this review?

Comments

No comments posted.

Registered users may leave comments.
Log in or register now!

 

 

 

© 2003-2025 off-the-edge.net  all rights reserved Privacy Policy