Born in Death (In Death Series #23) » (Reprint)

One of the most prolific and popular writers in the world, Nora Roberts (who also writes as her edgier alter-ego J. D. Robb) publishes multiple books a year. Not that it s enough for her fans, who tear through her unconventional romances. With her trademark mix of fantasy, mystery, and romance, Roberts has created her own genre -- and romance fans are grateful for it!

Technology has advanced in 2060 New York City, but childbirth has been the same since the beginning of time. And despite the brutal double homicide on Lieutenant Eve Dallas’s caseload, she has to be there for her pregnant friend Mavis, even if it means throwing the dreaded baby shower. . .

But Mavis needs an even bigger favor now. Tandy Willowby, one of the moms-to-be in her class, has gone missing, just days before her due date not even showing up at the shower at Eve and Roarke’s place that she’d been looking forward to so much. A recent emigrant from London, Tandy has few friends in New York, and no family. When Eve enters Tandy’s apartment and finds Mavis’s shower gift wrapped and ready on the table - and Tandy’s packed hospital bag still on the floor - her spine starts tingling.

Normally, this would be turned over to Missing Persons. Eve has more than enough on her plate trying to find out who murdered Natalie Copperfield and her fiancé, both employed at a highly prestigious accounting firm. But Mavis wants no one but Eve on the case - and Eve can’t say no. She’ll have to track Tandy down while tracing the deals and double-crosses hidden in the files of some of the city’s richest and most secretive citizens, in a race against a particularly vicious killer. Luckily, she has her multimillionaire husband Roarke’s expertise to help with the numbers-crunching. But as he mines for the crucial data that will break the case wide open, Eve faces an all-too-real danger in the flesh-and-blood world.

Publishers Weekly

Set in New York City in 2060, bestseller Roberts's latest police thriller under her Robb pseudonym in her Lt. Eve Dallas series (Naked in Death, etc.) offers her usual engaging characters. Dallas's investigation of the brutal murders of Natalie Copperfield, a 26-year-old accountant, and Copperfield's boyfriend becomes entangled with the search for Tandy Willowby, a pregnant friend who mysteriously vanishes shortly before her due date. Dallas discovers that Copperfield had stumbled on some white-collar fraud at her high-profile accounting firm, while Willowby's disappearance may be part of a series of abductions. Predictably, the two cases converge, and the mystery's solution becomes obvious. Newcomers, who may be dismayed at how little things will have changed in more than 50 years, would do better to start with earlier books in this near-future suspense series. (Nov.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.