I’ve reviewed a stack of JD Robb’s In Death series here and – before I blogged about books regularly – talked about the fact that the series was one of my comfort reads.

There was a teensy bit of a dip in my enjoyment a year or two ago, but whether I was feeling hard-to-please or Nora Roberts (ie. JD Robb) getting a bit stale, who knows; I’ve been enjoying the books again which is a good thing, as her latest is number 47 in the series!

Leverage in Death
by J.D. Robb
Series: In Death #47
on September 4th 2018
Source: Hachette Australia
Genres: Crime Fiction, Police Procedural
ISBN: 0349417903, 9780349417905
Pages: 384

Goodreads

For the airline executives finalizing a merger that would make news in the business world, the nine a.m. meeting would be a major milestone. But after marketing VP Paul Rogan walked into the plush conference room, strapped with explosives, the headlines told of death and destruction instead. The NYPSD’s Eve Dallas confirms that Rogan was cruelly coerced by two masked men holding his family hostage. His motive was saving his wife and daughter—but what was the motive of the masked men?

Despite the chaos and bad publicity, blowing up one meeting isn’t going to put the brakes on the merger. All it’s accomplished is shattering a lot of innocent lives. Now, with the help of her billionaire husband Roarke, Eve must untangle the reason for an inexplicable act of terror, look at suspects inside and outside both corporations, and determine whether the root of this crime lies in simple sabotage, or something far more complex and twisted.

I appreciate that Roberts / Robb seems to come up with a broad enough variety of crimes / murders to keep her detectives and we readers on our toes.

This one’s a bit different again, with a man being forced to kill himself and colleagues for completely understandable reasons. Of course it makes the senseless murders no less devastating and I liked that Robb actually has some of the characters articulate that. Even when they know why Rogan donned a suicide bomb vest they can only feel anger and resentment toward him for his actions.

It’s soon obvious that the poor husband and father in question is just a pawn and the target actually the business meeting taking place at the time.

“A-ha!” I thought, assuming there were family inheritances and business legacies at play. (Assuming it was the kids / wife / disgruntled shareholder etc)

But then there’s another suicide bombing and we’ve moved from company mergers to the art world.

What on earth would they have in common…. one would usually wonder, unless they’re Eve Dallas and have a megazillioniare civilian consultant handy.

Although the motivation / justification underlying the crime felt a little anticlimactic (I miss the usual ol’ psychopaths sometimes!), I did appreciate that this was something quite different again.

I think I finished the book feeling a little less fulfilled than I would like, but perhaps that’s because it pretty much zoomed to its conclusion with minimal conflict – though I usually hate the overly-drawn-out ‘will or won’t the baddies win?’ non-sequitur / furphy-thingy – cos you know the goodies are gonna win!

(Although I shouldn’t be as glib… we are 47 books into the series, Robb could possibly kill off one of our faves any day now!)

All of that being said, this book was the perfect antidote to an overwhelming to-do list and just the comfort read I needed.

Leverage in Death by JD Robb was published in Australia by Hachette and now available.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher for review purposes.