Reunion in Death (updated)

Reunion in Death J.D. Robb Grade: B+ Sensuality: Hot

In Reunion in Death, Lieutenant Eve Dallas faces a formidable foe. Julianna Dunne has renamed herself Julie Dockport, Dockport being the name of an off-planet penal facility where she spent a number of years after being sent there by none other than the lieutenant. Julianna is out, and has revenge on her mind. She's targetting middle-aged men in order to draw Eve into her deadly web. She plans to kill Roarke first, and in order for Eve to find her, she'll have to face demons of her own in Dallas, Texas.

As with nearly all of the titles in J.D. Robb's In Death series, a strong suspense component is well balanced by a strong relationship component. Peabody's parents pay a visit to their daughter in this one; her dad Sam is a healer and Phoebe, her mom, is a mom, but to the nth degree. While your mom or mine might have had eyes in the back of their heads, Peabody's mom needs merely to look at a person to exert her will. The anti-social Eve discovers that for herself when she finds herself inviting the Peabody's for dinner, and at that dinner, Roarke ends up inviting Phoebe and Sam to stay at the manse during their vacation.

For me, the highlights of this installment in the series mainly involve the relationships, although I was fascinated by Julianna's arrangement of an attack on Eve using a mountain of a man and a teen-aged skateboarder, and her ingenious escape from an Italian spa even as she was being watched. But getting back to those relationships, in addition to the heat Eve and Roarke continue to generate, there are a couple of terrific moments between Eve and Sam after he mistakenly insinuates himself in her memories while trying to cure her headache. That vulnerable Eve only seen by Roarke and Mira is visible to Sam as well, and though it creates a problem for her, she works through it enough that he plays a part in healing her bruised and battered body, along with Louise, after being attacked.

And then there's Dallas. Eve and Roarke travel there to meet with Julianna's step-father in order to discuss her allegations of sexual abuse. It all hits pretty close to home given Eve's past, and she comes face to face with her history after visiting the room in which she lived, was abused, and murdered her father at the age of eight. She also remembers what her father had planned for her, and the horror of that hits Eve and Roarke incredibly hard. It takes a visit from Mira for Roarke to get a grip on his feelings, and it's a nice moment when she tells him she not only loves Eve, she loves him too. It's a reminder that Eve isn't the only vulnerable one in their marriage; although he covers it better than Eve, he often sees himself through his father's eyes, or as the thief he once was.

Eve and Roarke celebrate their first anniversary in Reunion in Death, and they do it with as much heat as they always generate. The love scenes Robb writes for Eve and Roarke are surprising in that they are usually vague and short, but so packed with emotion that they often result in "Hot" sensuality ratings. I don't know of another author who can do this; generally a "Hot" rating is the result of fairly explicit love scenes that last more than a page or two, but I find myself agreeing with all the AAR reviewers who used "Hot" rather than "Warm" for many of these books.

I'd originally graded this one a straight B, mostly because Julianna evoked uncomfortable feelings in me in terms of her "abusive" history. I thought about it again, and changed my mind...this one's a B+, even if parts of the book were discomfiting.

Last night I finished catching up with the series after reading Strangers in Death. It's been an amazing journey.

TTFN, Laurie Likes Books

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