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A review by erebus53
Naked in Death by J.D. Robb
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
CW: explicit horrific sexual violence, gun violence, paedophilia, rape, murder, dismemberment of a small child, and non-consensual everything, oh and armed robbery with a bomb
Don't read any further if this is too much.
This was a book that was recommended to me at the local library. Why? I guess the librarian thought I might want to branch out a bit, and I liked "futuristic" stuff. Every time I tried to figure out why this book might be a popular choice I was reminded that it was written in 1995.. and we just had different expectations back then. The only reason I stuck it out is because I'm a masochist like that. J.D. Robb is a pen name of Nora Roberts. Apparently these books are popular but I don't think that is with a Left-Progressive crowd.
Eve is a cop who works homicide, in a gritty 90s-view dark future made clumsier still by the relics like discs for recording media. She has a shadowy past and is an abuse survivor, who won't let herself get close to anybody. She is a "good cop" and fits the bill for what passes as a "strong female character" if you lived in the mid 90s.
In the middle of a homicide investigation, Eve manages to decide that a particular hot guy couldn't possibly have done it, and get romantically involved with him before the case is even closed. Rourke (yes he only goes by one name) is a paint by numbers fantasy man who ticks all the boxes on a list of Desirable Attributes that don't attract me in the the least. He is a buff, ultra-rich Libertarian hustler who likes to buy things that have been banned (like tobacco and beef). It all feels a little Demolition Man, but without the tongue in cheek. To make him a little more exotic the author made him Irish, but as the Audiobook narrator can't do an Irish accent to save herself, she typically doesn't bother except every now and then when she remembers he's supposed to be Foreign.
This edition was recorded in 2000, and unfortunately it has plenty of mouth noise, breath intake, and even chair squeak in the recording. It's not quite as amateurish as volunteer projects like Librivox, but there are obvious cuts in the recording and poor sound balance between chapters.
The fancy future tech like "palm computer" was named way too explicitly to be anything less than cringey now, especially as it's not set so far in the future so a lot of those dates are now in the past. I've read and seen a lot of sci-fi where things don't mention dates, or that deliberately throw otherworldly tech into a modern setting making things clearly an alternate reality, so there are ways around this. Not bothering to explain what the tech is, and just using it in a "show don't tell" way is pretty common even in sci-fi from the 60s, but this author didn't get that memo, so the futurism was poorly pulled off, and basically needless anyway - as the crime in the mystery was using "20th century tech". The hacking scene was utterly ridiculous; omg he can use a keyboard rather than just voice commands *gasp*, down to the 'this is going to take over an hour a while for my computer cracks the security code...' wow. Even in 1995 I knew more about data security than this author.
There is a lot of snuff porn in this book. It's gross and needless. I think it's supposed to be edgy but it's just lame. We have video footage of escorts being brutalised, sexual gun violence and paedophilia roleplay, that is delivered in such a way that we are treading a nasty line. It feels like the author is trying to be grotesque and say 'isn't this awful!' but also, the content seems to be delivered to be arousing. If that was not supposed to be the intent then Roberts is completely tone deaf to it, but more likely is that it's supremely gross, deliberately inflammatory, and .. not even artful. Was this what passed for entertainment in the 90s?!
And where are the boundaries??! Rourke manages to impose himself on our hero whenever he likes. Not only does he own a whole bunch of buildings and the master key to all of them, but he ignores any law he doesn't like and rocks on up to wait for you in your apartment as a giga-chad version of the romantic gesture. This is a guy for whom every "no" is interpreted as a "not yet". He is Alpha dominance and a permanent display of unrelenting desire.. and you are supposed to like him because he's picked a favourite and is monogamous? He's powerful, buys you real imported coffee, and is nice to you... watch as he leaps low bars with a single bound! Maybe this would have appealed to me when I was 19 but these days I expect a little more from a man than to be borderline rapey and disrespectful of my personal boundaries. The romancey boffing was, not even that good.
One of the other distressing bits of this story is that all the abuse victims are badgered to tell their story, even the ones for whom their trauma was so damaging that they have repressed memory of it. What's worse is that it feels predatory and voyeuristic.
As far as a murder mystery goes, the plot was fairly obvious the moment you identified who had the most to gain,actually using the oldest whodunnit trope in the book and it was barely important to the frolicking sexplay or the vulgar ugliness of the violence and depravity.
Fine. I seem to hate this enough to give it a 1 star.. it's not as lumbering as Wilbur Smith, but almost as affronting.
Don't read any further if this is too much.
This was a book that was recommended to me at the local library. Why? I guess the librarian thought I might want to branch out a bit, and I liked "futuristic" stuff. Every time I tried to figure out why this book might be a popular choice I was reminded that it was written in 1995.. and we just had different expectations back then. The only reason I stuck it out is because I'm a masochist like that. J.D. Robb is a pen name of Nora Roberts. Apparently these books are popular but I don't think that is with a Left-Progressive crowd.
Eve is a cop who works homicide, in a gritty 90s-view dark future made clumsier still by the relics like discs for recording media. She has a shadowy past and is an abuse survivor, who won't let herself get close to anybody. She is a "good cop" and fits the bill for what passes as a "strong female character" if you lived in the mid 90s.
In the middle of a homicide investigation, Eve manages to decide that a particular hot guy couldn't possibly have done it, and get romantically involved with him before the case is even closed. Rourke (yes he only goes by one name) is a paint by numbers fantasy man who ticks all the boxes on a list of Desirable Attributes that don't attract me in the the least. He is a buff, ultra-rich Libertarian hustler who likes to buy things that have been banned (like tobacco and beef). It all feels a little Demolition Man, but without the tongue in cheek. To make him a little more exotic the author made him Irish, but as the Audiobook narrator can't do an Irish accent to save herself, she typically doesn't bother except every now and then when she remembers he's supposed to be Foreign.
This edition was recorded in 2000, and unfortunately it has plenty of mouth noise, breath intake, and even chair squeak in the recording. It's not quite as amateurish as volunteer projects like Librivox, but there are obvious cuts in the recording and poor sound balance between chapters.
The fancy future tech like "palm computer" was named way too explicitly to be anything less than cringey now, especially as it's not set so far in the future so a lot of those dates are now in the past. I've read and seen a lot of sci-fi where things don't mention dates, or that deliberately throw otherworldly tech into a modern setting making things clearly an alternate reality, so there are ways around this. Not bothering to explain what the tech is, and just using it in a "show don't tell" way is pretty common even in sci-fi from the 60s, but this author didn't get that memo, so the futurism was poorly pulled off, and basically needless anyway - as the crime in the mystery was using "20th century tech". The hacking scene was utterly ridiculous; omg he can use a keyboard rather than just voice commands *gasp*, down to the 'this is going to take over an hour a while for my computer cracks the security code...' wow. Even in 1995 I knew more about data security than this author.
There is a lot of snuff porn in this book. It's gross and needless. I think it's supposed to be edgy but it's just lame. We have video footage of escorts being brutalised, sexual gun violence and paedophilia roleplay, that is delivered in such a way that we are treading a nasty line. It feels like the author is trying to be grotesque and say 'isn't this awful!' but also, the content seems to be delivered to be arousing. If that was not supposed to be the intent then Roberts is completely tone deaf to it, but more likely is that it's supremely gross, deliberately inflammatory, and .. not even artful. Was this what passed for entertainment in the 90s?!
And where are the boundaries??! Rourke manages to impose himself on our hero whenever he likes. Not only does he own a whole bunch of buildings and the master key to all of them, but he ignores any law he doesn't like and rocks on up to wait for you in your apartment as a giga-chad version of the romantic gesture. This is a guy for whom every "no" is interpreted as a "not yet". He is Alpha dominance and a permanent display of unrelenting desire.. and you are supposed to like him because he's picked a favourite and is monogamous? He's powerful, buys you real imported coffee, and is nice to you... watch as he leaps low bars with a single bound! Maybe this would have appealed to me when I was 19 but these days I expect a little more from a man than to be borderline rapey and disrespectful of my personal boundaries. The romancey boffing was, not even that good.
One of the other distressing bits of this story is that all the abuse victims are badgered to tell their story, even the ones for whom their trauma was so damaging that they have repressed memory of it. What's worse is that it feels predatory and voyeuristic.
As far as a murder mystery goes, the plot was fairly obvious the moment you identified who had the most to gain,
Fine. I seem to hate this enough to give it a 1 star.. it's not as lumbering as Wilbur Smith, but almost as affronting.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Classism, Drug use, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Eating disorder, Hate crime, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Stalking, Murder, Blood, Domestic abuse, Grief, Sexual assault, Death, Pedophilia, Sexism, Sexual content, Gun violence, Sexual harassment, Violence, Child abuse, Gore, Sexual violence, and Rape
Moderate: Ableism, Alcohol, Vomit, and Abandonment