This In Death episode was definitely a police procedural as Eve and her team need to track down a pair of lovers who show their love for each other by torturing and murdering strangers. Eve comes in once the pair gets to New York. The first victim that Eve finds out about is a cellist named Dorian Kuper who was dumped on the street. Eve and Peabody do the usual checking out friends and family but it soon becomes apparent to them that he was a random victim. This starts Eve and Roarke trying to identify other similar cases.

Enter Deputy Will Banner from Arkansas who has also been tracking the pair on their killing spree across the country. He got involved because one of their earliest victims was an old guy that he was used to looking out for. The FBI has gotten involved but they don't believe Will's victim fits into their profile.

Eve calls in her friends and colleagues Morris, Mira, and McNabb to assist in the investigation as they rush to find something before the next victims are murdered. There was a lot of tension that kept building as Eve and her team uncovered clue after clue.

Outside of the investigation, tensions were high in the team because Carmichael was scheduled to take the exam to become a detective and both he and his trainer Baxter were nervous about it. Luckily, Eve had lots for them to do to take their minds off the exam. As usual the humor in the story came from Eve misunderstanding some idioms and especially becoming confused about time zones as she sent her detectives to Arkansas and Oklahoma to dig into out criminals' pasts.

It was also good to see the comparison between Eve and Roarke's love for each other and the love of the two villains. It is good seeing that Eve and Roarke are settling into a strong, deep love and that Eve is becoming more comfortable with her emotions.

All in all, this was another excellent addition to this long-running series. ( )

Great book from JD Robb (Nora Roberts) as always. ( )

Devoted in Death
4.5 Stars

Homicide Lieutenant Eve Dallas and her team investigate the brutal torture and slaying of a talented cellist. When it becomes clear that the young man was targeted at random, Eve realizes that his death is the latest in a string of horrific crimes and the murderous duo has made New York their latest hunting ground.

This is one of the darker and more gritty installments as the killers are truly malicious and revel in their depravity.

Following along with Eve and the others as they use solid policing techniques to uncover the killers' identities, trace their past crimes and track their current whereabouts in a highlight of the book. Robb is as skilled as ever at building tension and suspense.

There are also updates with various members of Eve's team that lead to some much-needed breaks in tension. Baxter is particularly sweet in this installment.

In sum, the series is still going strong after 41 books! ( )

Nothing out of the ordinary. A typical Eve Dallas novel. This one was kinda of hard to read, in my opinion. It didn't flow as well as previous novels. The characters felt true enough, but something was off. I missed a lot of the characters. I mean, there were mentions of Charles, Louise, Mavis, and Nadine, but we didn't hear from them. Insufficient amounts of Summerset and Baxter. Even Galahad was mostly absent. The wrap up to the crime was fairly uneventful. This wasn't one of my favorites but this still remains my favorite series. ( )

As always a great read by J.D. Robb. I can read her books all day long.