Tuesday, March 30, 2010

In Death Challenge Post: March 2010

Interested in joining the In Death Series Reading Challenge?
Visit THIS POST to read the rules and sign up.

This is the round up post for the third month of the In Death Reading Challenge. For those of you who have been playing along and have kept up with the challenge of reading at least one In Death book per month, congratulations! I have to admit I'm proud of myself --and quite frankly surprised with myself-- for completing my own end of the bargain for three straight months! If you're new to the challenge this month, welcome! Please speak up if you have any questions. :)

If you made a post on your blog, whether it be a review or commentary, please grab the link to your post and enter in the Mr. Linky below along with your name so we can find each other's posts easily.

If you're just going to keep a running list of the books as you read them, grab the link to your post where you'll be keeping track of your list and enter in the Mr. Linky so we can recognize your success this month.

If you don't have a blog, leave a comment below with your name and what book you read this month and feel free to join in on the In Death chatter here or on the other participants' blogs.

This will also help me keep track of who's eligible for my challenge giveaway next month.
Thanks for playing along!

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Holiday In Death by J.D. Robb
Book 7

Holiday In Death takes place at Christmas time in the year 2058. It is the first Christmas that Eve and Roarke will have spent together and Roarke pulls out all the stops to make it a festive and memorable one for both of them. There are decorations, a party and for the first time in her life, Eve has to go Christmas shopping. Not just her new husband, but also for several friends.

Unfortunately, crime doesn't stop for the holidays, and Eve is on a case to catch a serial killer who is posing as Santa Claus, leaving tokens of the "The Twelve Days of Christmas" with each victim. Knowing the killer intends on twelve murders, Eve and her team race to catch the murderer before he claims more victims.

Holiday In Death is another great installment in the series. I have a feeling I'm going to be sounding like a broken record saying that, but clearly the author has come up with a no fail formula for writing these futuristic murder mystery stories with romantic elements. I thought the murders in Holiday In Death were particularly gruesome or maybe it was more the perverse calculation and execution of the crimes that had me feeling kind of sick. To make matters worse, the race to catch this killer became even more intense when two members Eve's team went undercover to try to set up the killer and there were a couple of incidents that had the potential to be even more disturbing than they already were.

As for the personal aspects of this story, Eve was definitely affected by the emotional impact of celebrating Christmas for the first time in her life. Of course it is always great to see a deeper love and familial attachment grow between Eve and Roarke, but it's also really rewarding to see Eve getting closer to her friends and colleagues, particularly with Dr. Mira and Peabody. Watching her struggle to shop for Christmas gifts for Roarke and her new found circle of friends was amusing to say the least. My one complaint with this novel, however, is that the gift exchanges weren't a bigger part of the ending after all that agonizing Eve did over the shopping and holiday hoopla.

"Midnight In Death" by J.D. Robb
Novella, Book 8

Immediately after I finished Holiday In Death, I decided to pull out the next story and promptly started reading it once I realized it was a novella. I'm so glad I did, too, because "Midnight In Death" takes place immediately after the closure of the Holiday In Death murder case, in the few days between Christmas and New Year's.

Eve is called to investigate the discovery of a body found splayed in the ice rink at Rockefeller Center, only to learn the dead man is a judge whom Eve knew. Attached to the body is a note, or rather a list, of people who are the intended victims of the murderer starting with the judge and ending with Eve. Immediately Eve identifies the killer as David Palmer whom she caught and helped put away in prison only three years ago. Apparently David Palmer was cunning enough to escape prison, but is he cunning enough to escape being caught by Eve once again? I don't think so. Eve does struggle with this one and someone close to her comes very close to being Palmer's next victim, but thankfully she triumphs. Like you thought she wouldn't?


Next up for me is Conspiracy In Death. I started reading the first couple of chapters and it was already very engrossing, but I had to put it down because I had other books that were calling to me ... like the book I needed to read for the historical reading challenge I'm doing!


I got such enjoyment out of the gift exchanges in these two stories.

If you were one among Eve's small circle of friends and wanted to give her a gift, what would you give her?


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Challenge Participants:
Enter the url to your March 2010 In Death Challenge blog post with Mr. Linky below

OR

Enter the url to your blog post that contains the list of In Death Challenge books you have read so far with Mr. Linky below.


14 comments:

  1. I'm not in your challenge, but can I answer the gift question? Maybe a new harness for her weapon? *G* You're really zipping through the books and if I didn't have an actual TBR pile for the first time in almost a year I'd go back and read mine again.
    Hope you're having a fantastic week!

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  2. I fell down on the job this month. I didn't even have time to get to the library and take the book out, much less read it.

    But fingers crossed, I'll pick it up again next month.

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  3. I love the review! It made me want to read it again!
    I couldn't stop - after I finished Midnight I just had to pick up Conspiracy and I'm having trouble putting it down!

    I agree that watching Eve buy gifts was memorable. As was Peabody when she realized what her gift was. Eve's gift? I don't know, it would probably be a stash of candy bars... She & I share that afternoon necessity.

    **SPOILER** I think my favorite part was when Eve realized that she has stuff in her name - for tax reasons... It so made me laugh!!

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  4. why does this silly link thing never work for me? Is it just me? I've tried it on other sites, also, but my link never appears...

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  5. Brandy, I love that you stop by and comment on these In Death challenge post--it's great to share thoughts on the series whether you're reading the book for the first time or you read it months or years ago. If you ever decide to borrow any of the older books from the library and do rereads with me, I'm game! :)

    In the meantime, I love your gift idea. I was too sleepy when I typed the post up to think of a good gift idea for Eve... but I'm still thinking. ;)

    Venus Vaughn, I know what it's like when real life--and other books-- get in the way of reading everything you want to. Maybe next month! :)

    Gina, I know what you mean about Conspiracy In Death. I forced myself to put it down after the first two chapters. I'll get to it in another week or two, though. Candy bars for Eve is a great gift idea!!! She'd love that!

    Oh yeah!! I loved that scene you mention in your ***SPOILER***, too! Omgosh that was VERY funny!!!! I loved it!

    By the way, your link works in Mr.Linky. I don't know if you fixed it or if it just needed time to cache or whatever, but it works now! :)

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  6. I'm so looking forward to re-reading this series. Eve is so funny when she grumbles about friendships and relationships. LOL

    Hmm... what would I give Eve? It's mean but how about an old fashion dart board with Summerset's face on it? Eve could keep it in her office and relieve stress by throwing darts. :)

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  7. I'm sorry to inform that I didn't read any ID stories this month :/ The moving and tough studies weren't a problem like I thought. My reading was just... on the naughty side. For a busy month I managed to read quite a few books, but like I said, most of them were erotic romance novels. Hopefully next month I'll correct my error and read two ID books :) I have Loyalty & Witness in Death books waiting...

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  8. Sorry 'bout that...

    I continued my series re-read, up to Purity in Death, plus an out-of-order re-read of Kindred and Fantasy.

    I'm hoping to write and post something about the series, but it won't be a review... I'm having issues! *cries*

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  9. Conspiracy in Death is top 3 of this series for me... that was packed with emotion...

    Meanwhile I'm searching everywhere for the next 5 installments in Spanish for my Mama.

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  10. I can't believe that I didn't finish a single In Death book this month. I started Betrayal, but it just didn't hold me. I think I burned out over the previous two months. But I shall persevere! Next month for sure.

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  11. Leslie, a dartboard with Summerset's face on it!!?ROFLOL! That's a good one.

    I agree, it was VERY fun watching Eve grumble about all of her new relationships and try to figure out all those complicated emotions.

    Maija, Ooo la la, I hope you enjoyed your reading tangent. It's good to mix up your genres now and then.

    azteclady, you are an ID reading machine! Don't stress over writing an ID post!!! Fun! This is all for fun! No stress!

    What kind of issues? Blogging mojo issues? *pats*

    Mariana, excellent! I'm REALLY looking forward to Conspiracy In Death. You're not the first to name CID as one of your faves in the series.

    You're such a good daughter finding ID in Spanish for Mama.

    I took inventory of all the books you gave me last weekend. Now my book collection is more like a mini library! Thank you so much! xo

    Lori, oh my.
    I never thought I'd see the day!
    *faints*
    *gets back up*
    Maybe this'll give me a chance to sort of catch up!
    How did you do keeping track of your monthly reads for March? Heading to IJFR now...

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  12. Holiday in Death was a pretty good book, especially how Eve kept being able to buy gifts in an instant it seemed LOL.

    It's really great to see Eve's entourage widens and Eve and Roarke starting their Christmas traditions :)

    The case was an interesting one, although a bit disturbing. Kudos to Ms Roberts for discussing such a tough subject (incest) in the book.

    Hmm, I don't think I've ever read Midnight in Death...

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  13. nath, I know! Eve was actually pretty good at the gift giving thing. I was just thinking, did Eve and Summerset exchange gifts? I don't recall that they did?

    My copy of "Midnight In Death" is a little slip of a book. I'm imagining it was packaged along with Holiday In Death at its original release. These days it's in the Three In Death paperback that has three different novellas in it... but as Gina figured out the hard way... the stories are NOT chronological. They're spread out between the next ten ID books or something like that.

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  14. I love these posts! Every time I see an In Death Challenge post it makes me want to pick the series up and re-read. Which I just might have to do now...

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