Holiday in Death by J.D. Robb
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I really need a book that doesn’t annoy me. Three strikes in a row, now. I’m glad this isn’t baseball.
The murder mystery itself was well done, with a fairly original killer (I know, it’s all been done) and modus operandi.
I’m starting to have problems, though.
Most specifically, the scene where Roarke handcuffs Eve in bed. No, I’m not a prude. I think handcuffs are fun but they are not for everyone, and I find this scene completely out of character for Eve. The rest of the book focuses on how hard these crimes are for her to deal with. The bound and raped victims are triggering flashbacks to her own horrific childhood and making her snarl at everyone worse than usual. (Maybe that’s starting to wear a bit thin.) I’d think she’d have come across brutality like this before in her ten years as a New York cop, but okay, I’ll go along with it, for the sake of story and character development. But Eve herself is handcuffed by surprise and that doesn’t elicit any negative reaction? Is that just because it’s Roarke doing the handcuffing, ultimate manly man Roarke who can give her an orgasm with just one touch? (Maybe that’s starting to wear a bit thin, too.) The handcuffs she is magically free of a few sentences later? And he ripped her skirt right down the front? Actual Fact Discrepancy: It takes a lot of physical force to literally rip someone’s clothes off. Continuity Discrepancy: She just came home from Cop Central, where she had “denim-covered legs” as usual. Character Discrepancy: Since when does Lt. Eve Dallas wear a skirt voluntarily?
Where the hell did that whole scene come from?
And there’s the thing with Peabody. No spoilers, but…what the actual hell?
This may be a spoiler, but I think it also needs to be a trigger warning. Sexual assault is a sensitive issue. This book was an excellent opportunity to address some things with sensitivity and compassion, but nada.
Bad copy editing is annoying me more and more. “Devises” instead of “devices,“ “sculpture” instead of “sculptor,” having someone sign a “waver.” In the last book I tripped over mourners lowering their heads “respectively” and people walking “passed” things, twice. At the risk of sounding overly picky, I did not learn how to write correctly in English or writing class; I learned to write correctly by reading. It matters. Spell check is not copy editing. A writer of Robb’s reach and stature should have proper copy editing.
This series started out fairly enjoyably, good for mindlessly killing time on long commutes, but it’s seeming more and more hackneyed. It’s probably time to find greener pastures.
99 Monkeys 