Visions in Death

Visions in Death J.D. Robb Grade: B Sensuality: Warm

Somebody strangled a woman out late at night, removed her eyes, and left a red ribbon behind as his calling card. An old friend of Louise Dimatto's contacts Eve. She's a psychic and she saw the murder in her mind. Eve is naturally skeptical, but Louise vouches for her friend, and Celina Sanchez offers details to the murder that were not released to the press. As they meet, each silently tests the other, although the reader doesn't realize that Celina has tested Eve. What is revealed early on is that Celina believes Eve's ability to paint a picture of a crime scene, to put herself in the mind of a killer and determine how a crime occurred, is a psychic gift in and of itself.

Additional young women are then murdered in the same manner. There appears to be no connection between the women - except for the red ribbon found on the bodies, and that all were knitters. As for the murderer, because of the forensics, he is quite tall, and extremely strong. With those two clues, Eve and Peabody investigate gyms at which body-builders train, and look for a store that all the women used to buy knitting materials because it's believed that's how the killer scopes out his victims...and came across that red ribbon.

As they begin to close in on the killer, he feels the heat and attacks Peabody right outside the apartment she shares with McNab. Before she went down, Peabody got in a shot of her own, but her injuries are extremely severe, and it's from this point forward - admittedly, fairly late on, but no spoiler as it's mentioned on the inside cover page - that my interest kicked into highest gear from merely high gear. Eve, Feeney, McNab, Roarke, Louise, Nadine, Charles, Mavis...all lay vigil for Peabody, and there are some wonderful moments for all. Eve's devotion to her partner is apparent and she is as soft as she is capable of being as she tries to elicit details from McNab. Roarke's strong bond with McNab shows in that moment as well. You can almost hear the Irish in his voice as he says: "Have a bit of tea now, Ian, and catch your breath...I know what it is to have the one you love, the only one, hurt. There's a war in your belly, and your heart's so heavy it doesn't seem as if your body can hold it. This kind of fear doesn't have a name. You can only wait with it."

This installment in the series also introduces Yancy (I think), a police sketch artist. He plays a larger role in some of the later books, and his method of getting to know witnesses, which can take time, sometimes gets on Eve's last nerve. But she realizes he's the best, and he's who she turns to for help with those who witnessed Peabody's attack.

But getting back to the crimes - and the killer - he's suitably creepy, his reasons for what he does, and how he goes about doing it are incredibly creepy. As often occurs when Eve's on the case, her own mistreatment as a child helps her get into the head of the killer, even though it takes a personal toll. There's a development at the end of Visions in Death that surprised me even though I halfway expected it. For those who don't often read mystery or suspense novels - like me - it seems to come out of nowhere, and it provides a strong ending for the book. It's like I'd spent the book waiting something to develop out of a tiny bit of information, but kept it in the back of my brain until it did.

I know I sound like a broken record, but what worked best for me in this book were the personalities - all of them - and relationships. And I was struck by Celina's theory that Eve has some psychic skill, which allows her to do her job as well as she does.

TTFN, Laurie Likes Books

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