Book: Immortal in Death
Aug. 29th, 2010 04:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amanda_lodden21. Immortal In Death by J.D. Robb
I still like this series, but I felt this book was weaker than the first two. I've gone on and on about the line between "keeping the killer a secret" and "keeping your reader in the dark" and I've also written about the challenge in an ongoing series of keeping the character from becoming stale. This book felt "off" on both counts; I knew almost as soon as a certain character was introduced that he was the killer, but it never even occurred to the detective until the very end. Knowing early on is okay, if you can keep the reader second-guessing that knowledge, but I spent most of the book mentally yelling at Eve to stop and fucking think. Also? Three books into the series, Eve's nightmares have turned into full-fledged flashbacks and her entire backstory is laid wide open, PLUS she gets married. In the same book. I'm surprised there was room for a murder. I feel like I was cheated out of Eve's character development; it all got shoved into this book instead of progressing gradually.
And yet? Robb still did a good job of keeping my interest. I'm hoping that this is just a temporary downturn, and more interesting things will happen in the series now that all that icky backstory is out of the way.
I still like this series, but I felt this book was weaker than the first two. I've gone on and on about the line between "keeping the killer a secret" and "keeping your reader in the dark" and I've also written about the challenge in an ongoing series of keeping the character from becoming stale. This book felt "off" on both counts; I knew almost as soon as a certain character was introduced that he was the killer, but it never even occurred to the detective until the very end. Knowing early on is okay, if you can keep the reader second-guessing that knowledge, but I spent most of the book mentally yelling at Eve to stop and fucking think. Also? Three books into the series, Eve's nightmares have turned into full-fledged flashbacks and her entire backstory is laid wide open, PLUS she gets married. In the same book. I'm surprised there was room for a murder. I feel like I was cheated out of Eve's character development; it all got shoved into this book instead of progressing gradually.
And yet? Robb still did a good job of keeping my interest. I'm hoping that this is just a temporary downturn, and more interesting things will happen in the series now that all that icky backstory is out of the way.
