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Book Review of Apprentice in Death (In Death, Bk 43)

Apprentice in Death (In Death, Bk 43)
reviewed on + 112 more book reviews


Our usual crew is back on the job for a mostly satisfying turn in 2060 NYC. The running tie joke continues. Someone's got a girl friend, maybe? The birthday party has a hoot of a guest list. Mavis appears, but seems to be demoted from very present bestie to best friend with a separate life. Whitney wants his own DLE . Oh. There's a serial killer on the loose who's proving to be an excellent sniper.

The Homicide squad, Morris, and the Crime Scene crew take front and center stage in this latest installment of the In Death series. Roarke really should get a desk in her squad room, because he's talking like one of the cops. You know halfway through the book who the bad guys are. The rest is spent trying to stop and capture them.

This feels like a decently written police procedural, with a little token socializing at the end to bring in all the ancillary characters who didn't have an excuse to appear in the rest of the story. It definitely was written by a ghost writter - one who nearly mimics Nora Roberts. But that hard, driven, suspenseful writing style that characterized the J. D. Robb persona is just not as present, unlike NR's mainstream books that stiil sound like her style. It's not to say that this writer is bad or off the reservation like ones from two to three years ago. It's just that the intwining of the non-cop secondary characters with the Dallas' professional life is not as tight as it used to be. The grays are fading from her world, becoming lighter or darker.