INDULGENCE IN DEATH

Thrill killing 50 years in the future.

Upon her return from vacation, Lt. Eve Dallas (Fantasy in Death, 2010, etc.) catches a particularly grisly homicide. A limo driver has been skewered to the steering wheel by a crossbow bolt. Almost immediately thereafter, a Licensed Companion (that’s high-class hooker) has a bayonet thrust through her heart in a Coney Island horror ride. The murders that follow include one by harpoon and another by bullwhip. Each slaying is more daring, more public, than the last. And investigation proves that all the victims were lured to their deaths by appointments set up using bogus identities. With some assistance from her mega-rich husband Roarke, Dallas zeroes in on two suspects, Sylvester Moriarity and Winston Dudley, who both have money, privilege, power and apparently a competitiveness that has driven them to create a murder game in which they alternate kills, each determined to be more outlandish than the other. Fueled by many cups of coffee and several lovemaking interludes with Roarke, Dallas sets up an endgame with herself as bait.

Robb, the futuristic alter ego of Nora Roberts, has churned out more than 35 titles in the In Death series. Here there's a sprinkling of droids, techie hardware and off-planet references, but mainly an old-fashioned love story interrupted by gore.