Innocent in Death

[cornerofmadness]

Innocent in Death by J.D. Robb

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


If you look over my reviews for this series they're all over the place rating wise. I'm still wondering why but it's probably due to the punishing publishing schedule Robb/Roberts is working under. When you don't have time to develop stuff you get a mess like this.

And I can't even say the mystery is bad. It's fine but it's a combination of a pointless subplot and Eve herself that tanked this one for me. Assume spoilers throughout with this one (My usual when I want to dissect why something didn't work).

Tackling the Magdelena problem first. This had potential but it fizzled into let's make Eve a jealous bitch for absolutely no reason other than the formula for this series insists on at least one Eve/Roarke fight and then boring make up sex (seriously, their sex scenes are so skippable) Maggie is a grifter from Roarke's past who stuck it to him and abandoned him for their mark and she's made it her M.O. to marry rich old dudes, wait out the prenups and then take them for all their worth. She of course does her level best to make Eve jealous which took about one bat of her eyelashes. I know Roberts is from a romance background and jealousy as a way to prove how much you love someone is a sick trope from that genre but it's ugly and to someone who mainlines true crime, I know how it usually goes and it's not to enhancing someone's relationship.

And literally that's all she's there for. There's some half assed attempt to say she wanted Roarke because he was rich now but there's no threat here. He's never once tempted. It would have been so much more interesting if she had been a threat to him or wanted him to do one last score or had proof that could topple his empire, anything but this.

As for Eve, holy crap she's just awful in this. So the case starts with a murder at a prestigious school where two ten year olds find their favorite teacher dead from ricin poisoning and Eve immediately acts like both girls are Jack the Ripper to the point even Peabody is like wtf is your problem? The principle calls her arrogant and dismissive which Eve is for absolutely no reason. No one has DONE anything to her yet and later when they do, the tension is gone because Eve's been acting like this since her first appearance.

Also she's a truly awful friend in this. She's a bitch to Roarke, she's obnoxious to Peabody, she only talks to someone when she wants something, like with Mira and Mavis, literally not bothering to see Mavis and the new baby until she wants something from Mavis and can't even be bothered to touch the kid until Mavis insists (I get it, she doesn't like kids. I was not a fan myself but I didn't act like my friends' babies were poisonous)

And that's my biggest problem with Eve. She is the strong woman but using ALL the toxic masculinity stuff that doesn't fly any more (granted this book is old already) Eve is going to out man all the men. She's rude to her boss. She's awful to Roarke (she even punches him in the face at one point to make a point I suppose) And she doesn't know how being a woman works. She doesn't know you need a gift for a baby. She doesn't know so many things most people would have at least a passing clue and I don't know how anyone in her position could NOT know these things because detective work requires an understanding of the human condition and she has none.

Once we get to the point that we're pointing at the child psychopath there is no tense because Eve has acted like this all along without any evidence so by the time there is some there is nowhere to go with it. We've lost that opportunity. And the reasons to bring in Roarke (another trope of this series) to help with the case were so lame I was laughing. What no one in her department can break the lock on a child's diary??



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