Rapture in Death

Rapture in Death

In Death #4

by J.D. Robb

Berkley Books, October 1996

299 pages, ebook, hardcover, paperback, audiobook

Sci-fi mystery with romance

✭✭✭✭⭑

This was purchased from BN.com as part of a series of 5 books. This is my honest review for which I am not being compensated in any way.

If this is the fourth book, that means this is the fourth week of January. That doesn’t seem possible. But I suppose it must be true. According to the thermometer, it’s true. So I guess I’ll have to go along with it. Time does fly when you’re reading good books! And this is some of the best stuff to read!

This book starts out on the honeymoon of Roarke and Eve. They have already been to a couple of other places, including Paris. Now they are at his off-planet resort that’s still under construction. And, of course, it’s all the most luxurious stuff imaginable and even some you can’t imagine. Young Carter knocks on their door and informs Roarke that his roommate has commited suicide. Eve investigates and can’t find anything to disprove that theory, except that there seems no reason for this young man to have taken his own life. It just doesn’t make sense and the smile on his face is creepy. It’s not her territory, so she leaves it ready for the proper authorities to take over whenever they arrive. And the newlyweds return home.

While they were away, Senator Pearly it seems had thrown himself from the window of his office in the Capitol Building.

Dallas and Peabody are in court paying for the time she took to have a three week honeymoon. DA S.T. Fitzhugh is working hard to get Dallas to budge on her testimony, but he’s having no luck. And Mavis has found a musician who’s a promoter who wants to work with her. She’s, of course, very excited about working with another musician, especially one who wants to build up her career and help her become a better artist. Jess is a good musician and an electronic wizard with his super console. Leonardo asks a favor for Mavis. Could Roarke host a party for Mavis to launch her? With all his style and connections, it would really help her. Dallas promises to ask. She comes home to meet two of Roarke’s researchers, Reeanna and William, who have been off-planet for quite awhile. Reeanna is the type of woman who makes Dallas feel a bit intimidated. She’s tall, curvy, and a total femme fatale with a very good brain. Roarke admits they’d had a very brief thing many years ago, but there is absolutely nothing there now. Reeanna wants to be friends with Eve.

Dallas and Peabody have a new homicide. This time it’s someone they both know. DA S.T. Fitzhugh has settled into his bath and slit his wrists. This is definitely a man who has no reasons to take his own life. He has a very cozy relationship of many years standing with his partner and a successful career. This time, Dr. Morris finds something that Dallas can use. On the brain scan there is a strange little burn where there shouldn’t be one. It’s the only thing out of place. That and the smile on his face when he died. And it gets Dallas thinking about Todd off-planet, and Senator Pearly. It’s very early days, but she asks for brain scans. The one from the senator will do her no good since he jumped from so high, but Todd hung himself.

Cerise Devane, CEO of a company downtown where Eve is walking by is now sitting out on the ledge of the roof with a taser in her hand. And she’s not wearing anything but a smile. Dallas ends up sitting on the ledge with Cerise. They’ve met socially through Roarke it seems. They chat, but every time Eve starts to get close enough to try to get Cerise safely off the ledge, she’s backed up by the tazer. Until finally, Cerise decides to fly, and over she goes. It is all caught by the camera of Channel 75 news in a helicopter hovering close by. Including Dallas’ face when Cerise goes over. So Roarke knows what he’s dealing with when she gets home. So does Sommerset. Once Roarks gets past the idea that his wife has survived to come home to him, he handles her as if she’s made of crystal.

Meanwhile, Dickhead’s assistant has found some “blips” in the VR units. They don’t know what the “blips” are, but they are there.

Roarke and Eve do indeed host a party for Mavis. And Jess is quite the wizard of his huge console. What else is he creating with that console? It’s not just music. Mood music. Moods. How much is he controlling people and which people is he controlling? When he controls Roarke and causes him to hurt Eve, Roarke swears revenge. And Eve gives him five minutes alone with the man before he is taken in. He’s not the one putting burns on brain scans, though. That’s someone colder than he is. At least not according to Dr. Mira’s evaluations. And those are gold.

But Dallas wants Jess. She wants a second opinion. And Reeanna is just the one she can get it from. She’s more than happy to meet with Dallas to give her that second opinion. Roarke is up in his office. The women meet downstairs with Dallas’ comp. She’s seeing things on the screen and listening to the woman and the picture is starting to come in very clear. It’s not Jess. Dr. Mira is right, as usual. It’s Reeanna. She has the knowledge to do this and the access to the VR units to create the burns on the brain scans, too. She works for Roarke in that very department! She’s been bragging about it the whole time! Her screen name, Todd’s screen name, the knowledge and the interest. They were just lab rats for her! And then Reeanna realizes that Dallas has caught up with her and she kills herself. Suddenly Dallas remembers the VR unit provided to Roarke at the beginning of the night for his review and she races to the top of the house to find that Roarke has figured it out as well. He hasn’t touched it. And he was just coming to find her. So often these two think alike and move towards each other when they think they are in danger.

Now, if Dallas weren’t married to Roarke and were just a homicide detective, she wouldn’t have been in on the death off-planet. She probably still would have handled the senator’s death right from the beginning. She still would have been there for the DA’s death and for Cerise Devane’s death, but they wouldn’t have known each other. She would have known Mavis anyway because they are best friends, but would Jess have been drawn to work with Mavis if she weren’t Dallas’ friend and couldn’t make that connection. That was important to him. She wouldn’t have met Reeanna and William and been in on all that chit chat about the VR units and what can be done. Would she still have solved this case or would these all have been suicides? Just how good a cop is Eve Dallas?

Next book #5 Ceremony in Death