Brotherhood in Death (In Death, #42)

by J D Robb

[EBookObsessed]

I thought this was going to be a simple investigation. I never expected where she was going with this. Shocking and intense, as you would expect from a J.D. Robb novel

Eve Dallas is very close to Dr. Charlotte Mira and her husband, Dennis. They have become pseudo parents to Eve over the years so when Dr. Mira runs to Eve for help when Dennis is attacked, there is no way Eve will say no to her. Dennis was angry that his cousin, Edward, was meeting in secret with a realtor to sell their grandfather's brownstone. As far as Dennis is concerned, they promised the man they would keep the house in the family. To Dennis the promise they made is more important than the $10 million price tag. So Dennis goes to the house to confront Edward while he is meeting with the realtor, but only finds a beaten up Edward at the house before Dennis is knocked out.

Eve knows that a man like the former senator no doubt has many, many enemies, and the idea that he is trying to secretly sell the house seems to point to an issue with money. Could Edward have gotten into debt with someone shady enough to take a pound of flesh rather than just cash? And then there is the resolving door on his secret love nest. His wife might have no problem with his other activities, but maybe a jilted lover--or spouse of a lover--might be more concerned with Edward's wandering eye.

When Edward's body is finally found showing evidence of being brutalized, Eve knows this is a lot more personal than a political disagreement or a loan shark.

Then a close friend of Edward's is suddenly abducted, and the investigation starts leading Eve down a trail of secrets and abuse going back decades. Edward and his friends had created a brotherhood and this brotherhood played with the lives of others for their own sport. Now some of their victims have created a "brotherhood" of their own for the simple purpose of revenge. When the murder victims turn out to be predators and the murderers turn out to be victims, the lines between right and wrong start to blur even for Eve Dallas.

THOUGHTS:
I enjoyed this story a lot more than I originally thought I would. After the last In Death with lovebird killers on a spree, I thought a story about Mira's cousin and a real estate deal would be boring. I almost reluctantly picked it up because I had reviews to post and hoped there would at least be some good interpersonal stuff with Eve. I should have known there would be so much more.

I don't want to talk about it too much so I don't ruin it for others but as she has done before, J.D. Robb goes to some dark places that people don't like to shine lights on. Part of it did seem to be just a reason to discuss Eve's tragic past one again, since we haven't rehashed that as much recently, and she ends up going through the details several times of her rape and the murder of her father. I guess there just might be someone picking this up as their first In Death book, but the rest of us know the story well and it just felt a little superfluous.

Everyone will finish this story with an even greater crush on Dennis Mira (including Eve) but I can't imagine there was any Dennis haters out there.

And we got to see Trueheart get his detective shield. I felt like we had trained him too since we were there from the beginning. It was a proud moment and now he is partners with Baxter.

This story was a lot more interesting than I had anticipated and proves that N.R. isn't done with Eve Dallas and neither are we.

Received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.