Book Review: Witness in Death by J. D. Robb [AKA Nora Roberts]

Witness in Death is part of a futuristic series about Lieutenant Eve Dallas, a homicide detective in the year 2059 New York. Lt. Dallas or Dallas as she's generally called is married to what must be the richest and most handsome businessman either on or off the planet. As a series set in the future, interplanetary travel is possible though there are no little green aliens and the people are basically just regular people like we are today. There are quite a few differences in the future though, for example life expectancy is longer and body sculpting is possible if you are unhappy with your body type. There are a lot of other things that are possible in the future in this series which leaves the author able to make anything possible and believable to the story.

Witness is the tenth book in the "In Death" series. The story begins as Roarke takes Dallas to the first play that she's ever seen. As she is enjoying the play and Roarke is enjoying her response to the play, one of the actors is killed as part of a scene in the play. But it seems that a real knife was used and the actor is really dead. As a witness to the murder, Dallas takes over the high-profile crime scene as the lead detective.

As Dallas and her aid, Peabody follow the clues, they find that the dead actor was hated by everyone. Everyone had a motive since basically they all had wanted him dead. Richard Draco might have been a famous actor but as a person, he was really bad. Then another murder was committed, a prop man at the play. Dallas connects it to the first crime scene.

Dallas finds out everyone's secrets as she looks into their backgrounds or actually as Roarke uses his supercomputers to help her look at the actor's backgrounds. There's jealousy, greed, drugs, sex, blackmail, incest, and love as Dallas connects all sorts of seemingly unrelated clues to solve the case.

I love the "In Death" series, it's totally excellent. It reminds me a little of the three CSI television series. I love all the main characters and the supporting characters. In each book we learn just a little more about each character and their lives. I like the relationship between Eve and Roarke, they are very devoted to each other and their love and marriage. I like the relationship between Dallas and Peabody, they work well together. Sometimes I don't like the gruesome aspect of the murders in the series but I like the characters so much and the process of solving the crimes enough that I try to "overlook" the really gruesome murders. If you get a chance to read this series, starting with number one, Naked in Death, would be best and then read each book in order. It's easier to see the evolution of the characters and their relationships that way. But if you can't read them in order, they are each a stand-alone story that CAN be read out of order.

You can buy this book at your local bookstore or online at web pages such as Amazon and eBay.