Whatever name she's writing under, mega-bestselling author Nora Roberts crafts top-notch stories with engaging characters and compelling plots. The latest volume in her near-future mystery series starring New York City homicide detective Eve Dallas is a perfect example of that: In Imitation in Death, summer has come to the city, but it's anything but a vacation for Eve as a serial killer with a flair for the dramatic begins a deadly game. The first victim is a prostitute, found slashed to death in an alley.
After a tip from a reporter, Eve Dallas finds the body of a young woman in a Delancey street dumpster. Just hours before, the news station had mysteriously received a portfolio of professional portraits of the woman. The photos seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary for any pretty young woman starting a modeling career. Except that she wasn't a model. And that these photos were taken after she had been murdered.
Louie Cogburn had spent three days holed up in his apartment, staring at his computer screen. His pounding headache was unbearable-like spikes drilling into his brain. And it was getting worse. Finally, when someone knocked at his door, Louie picked up a baseball bat, opened the door, and started swinging... The first cop on the scene fired his stunner twice and Louie died instantly. Detective Eve Dallas has taken over the investigation, but there's nothing to explain the man's sudden rage or death.
Dallas, a New York police lieutenant, is a hard-bitten warrior cop who buries the pain and anger of her early childhood by excelling on the job. In her latest adventure, all the usual suspects are back: Eve's charismatic husband, Roarke; her plucky assistant, Peabody; and hipster techno-geek McNab. For this round, their objective is to take down a woman Eve arrested 10 years ago, a poisoner named Julianna Dunne. Julianna's out on parole, and now rich old men are dying sudden deaths.
As Lieutenant Eve Dallas tracks a seductive and ruthless killer through the streets of twenty-first-century New York, she must also face brutal memories from her childhood.
