Loyalty in Death

Loyalty in Death

In Death series #9

J.D. Robb, Nora Roberts

Berkley Books, Oct 1999

359 pages, ebook, hardcover, paperback, audiobook

Sci-fi thriller romantic cozy

✭✭✭✭✭

I purchased this as part of a bundle on BN.com for my nook app at a reduced price. This is my honest review for which I receive no compensation of any kind.

The cover of this book is great. It contains elements from the story and is very appealing with the yellow against the black with the red accents. You get the Statue of Liberty from the final scene with the people watching from below, you get the countdown of clocks and the bombs to add the tension. That’s something you have throughout this book. The story is solid with the group from the past rearing its head in a new form. The characters are well-done and engaging, both the good guys and the bad guys. The pace is fast once you get past the initial murder and understand just what is behind it. And as I mentioned, the tension ticks with the timers, clocks, and bombs throughout. This is a book that is best read in one sitting if you can. All 359 pages of it. It’s not my favorite of the series by any means, but it is a powerfully written story and grabs you, carries you through to the emotional end. This is why so many people read this series, for the relationship between these two people and their expanding group of friends.

I’m not going to do much of a reveal on this one in the quest for shorter reviews right now. Especially since this is the review for last Monday that you didn’t get from me. So…

It starts with Eve getting contacted by one of her weasels with some information about a man known as Fixer. Then Fixer, the weasel, and an LC are all dead. Eve starts getting messages from a group calling themselves Cassandra and she put Feeney on the case. Feeney ties them to an older group called Apollo that took out the Pentagon and thousands of people toward the end of the Urban Wars. An empty warehouse is blown up (Roarke owns it), Radio City Music Hall is threatened but they defuse the bombs in time with Roarke’s help. Then the Tea Room at the Plaza Hotel is blown up and many people are killed, and Eve and Delia help remove the bodies of the dead. Shortly after that, Madison Square Gardens is threatened and the bomb squads go in, including LT Anne Malloy. Anne is the LT in charge of the bomb squad and she and Dallas have recently formed a friendship. Anne is pregnant. The Gardens have been evacuated all but for the bomb squad working on the last bomb. Anne is at ground zero when it is set off. Eve has a hard time accepting this. She does not give her friendship easily and this one hurts.

The last target is the Statue of Liberty and she and Roarke fly one of his experimental transports to get them there in time to defuse the bombs. But the loyal Cassandra group is still there and in the fight, Roarke ends up dangling from the side of Lady Liberty by one bloody hand with a bullet in him. He is sure he is at his end. But the strong hands of his wife and her dedication and love reach down and pull him to safety. It is a very emotional moment. He’s quite ready to say goodbye to her due to his position and pain, but she’s determined he’s not going. It’s her will as much as her physical strength which brings him back up over the side of the statue. Another wonderful moment in the Roarke-Dallas relationship that keeps us reading their saga.

Highly recommended.