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beyondelsewhere 's review for:
Faithless in Death
by J.D. Robb
[This review is a lot rantier than I thought it was going to be. Sorry!]
I think I told myself after the last book that I needed to remember to stop getting these books. However I can't. As soon as a new In Death book comes out, I want it.
I had to read a bunch of other reviews before starting this one because something was off about this book, and I wanted to see if I was the only one who felt that way.
And by "off" I mean, the first part of the book didn't make me want to rage-quit reading it because of all the super saccharine gushing over how amazing Eve Dallas is at her job wasn't there. There was only one annoying sex scene, and it was easily skipped (I just don't care about them anymore), and the interactions between Eve and her friends seemed more normal and less re-used lines from the previous books. I was actually enjoying the story, and mystery for most of this book. And as soon as I mentioned to my husband that "hey, I think they found a better ghost writer", the ending of this story just flipped back to everything I have grown to dislike about these books. Oh dear.
[Spoilers]
The previous book ( Shadows in Death) hit the all-time high of improbability with the ENTIRE FREAKING CAST AND CREW being flown to Ireland and all that went down there. That was just too much for me. Dallas isn't the freaking Chosen One and to have her solve a case that no other international or major crime body couldn't (Interpol! FBI! CIA! ABCDEFG!) for years, was a little too much for me. And that's where this 52nd book went wrong after I had been enjoying it for the first 3/4s of the story. Because she took every gosh darned character in the world on yet another field trip to take down a major cult that has already made undercover FBI people disappear, and gets rid of people so easily, and yet Dallas has once again swept in to save the day, taking Interpol, Homeland Security, the FBI, her commander, her SKETCH ARTIST, her ADA, her psychiatrist, her reporter, her husband, and her entire bullpen team with her as she takes the Big Bads herself.
I can't get behind that. This is just ridiculous now.
For the first time in a few books, I was enjoying how this one felt fresh again, until the ending. The ending made me so angry.
And after reading some reviews when I finished the previous books, which pointed out some stuff I hadn't really ever thought of because I'd skip these parts, I can no longer stand the "Roarke picks out her clothes" bits. Because, well, yeah, that is pretty controlling. And so I see it in a new light, not because someone told me to, but because someone put words to the weirdness I always felt about this thing but didn;t know why. And in this story? The comment Roarke makes about "even in this situation there's no way I am slumming in cop-issued clothing and neither are you" (totes paraphrased there) so he has fancy-ass clothes brought it for their midnight raid of the cult compound? CAN YOU GET ANY MORE I AM BETTER THAN YOU POOR PEOPLE?
Roarke is a character that at one time made me swoon, and over time became much more obviously condescending and elitist. And he is constantly looking down on everyone around them, unless they mean something to his wife. A wife who claims not to care about what she wears, but certainly spends an awful lot of time judging what everyone else is wearing. She's always annoying by Peabody's clothing choices, she hates McNab and Jenkinson's clothing choices (and ties!) and she's constantly telling people to hide this stuff from them because her eyes are bleeding or something. All while wearing top-of-the-line, more than their salary's designer cop clothes that her HUSBAND buys for her. It's nauseating.
But, um, sometimes the murder mystery is really great and that's what keeps me coming back. Also I love Peabody.
The end.
I think I told myself after the last book that I needed to remember to stop getting these books. However I can't. As soon as a new In Death book comes out, I want it.
I had to read a bunch of other reviews before starting this one because something was off about this book, and I wanted to see if I was the only one who felt that way.
And by "off" I mean, the first part of the book didn't make me want to rage-quit reading it because of all the super saccharine gushing over how amazing Eve Dallas is at her job wasn't there. There was only one annoying sex scene, and it was easily skipped (I just don't care about them anymore), and the interactions between Eve and her friends seemed more normal and less re-used lines from the previous books. I was actually enjoying the story, and mystery for most of this book. And as soon as I mentioned to my husband that "hey, I think they found a better ghost writer", the ending of this story just flipped back to everything I have grown to dislike about these books. Oh dear.
[Spoilers]
The previous book ( Shadows in Death) hit the all-time high of improbability with the ENTIRE FREAKING CAST AND CREW being flown to Ireland and all that went down there. That was just too much for me. Dallas isn't the freaking Chosen One and to have her solve a case that no other international or major crime body couldn't (Interpol! FBI! CIA! ABCDEFG!) for years, was a little too much for me. And that's where this 52nd book went wrong after I had been enjoying it for the first 3/4s of the story. Because she took every gosh darned character in the world on yet another field trip to take down a major cult that has already made undercover FBI people disappear, and gets rid of people so easily, and yet Dallas has once again swept in to save the day, taking Interpol, Homeland Security, the FBI, her commander, her SKETCH ARTIST, her ADA, her psychiatrist, her reporter, her husband, and her entire bullpen team with her as she takes the Big Bads herself.
I can't get behind that. This is just ridiculous now.
For the first time in a few books, I was enjoying how this one felt fresh again, until the ending. The ending made me so angry.
And after reading some reviews when I finished the previous books, which pointed out some stuff I hadn't really ever thought of because I'd skip these parts, I can no longer stand the "Roarke picks out her clothes" bits. Because, well, yeah, that is pretty controlling. And so I see it in a new light, not because someone told me to, but because someone put words to the weirdness I always felt about this thing but didn;t know why. And in this story? The comment Roarke makes about "even in this situation there's no way I am slumming in cop-issued clothing and neither are you" (totes paraphrased there) so he has fancy-ass clothes brought it for their midnight raid of the cult compound? CAN YOU GET ANY MORE I AM BETTER THAN YOU POOR PEOPLE?
Roarke is a character that at one time made me swoon, and over time became much more obviously condescending and elitist. And he is constantly looking down on everyone around them, unless they mean something to his wife. A wife who claims not to care about what she wears, but certainly spends an awful lot of time judging what everyone else is wearing. She's always annoying by Peabody's clothing choices, she hates McNab and Jenkinson's clothing choices (and ties!) and she's constantly telling people to hide this stuff from them because her eyes are bleeding or something. All while wearing top-of-the-line, more than their salary's designer cop clothes that her HUSBAND buys for her. It's nauseating.
But, um, sometimes the murder mystery is really great and that's what keeps me coming back. Also I love Peabody.
The end.