Immortal in Death: In Death, Book 3

I have fallen in love with these characters. Susan Ericksen is a master at the naration. I know immediately from the accent if Eve, Rorke, Mavis, etc. is speaking. I find myself at the end of the book wanting more. I would suggest listening in order as their are often references to past cases that were solved.

Once I bought the first and second audiobook, I couldn't stop. This series was like a drug in paper form when I first started reading them, and now as an audiobook it has the same power. I have read the book but it's been some time and I could still enjoy the story as well as Eve's voice via Susan Ericksen. Loved it.

The in death series are good - but what I am after is the relationship between Eve and Roarke, how it evolves, how she changes and comes terms with herself.

I love the way Susan Ericksen narrates, she is fantastic!!

Hubby & I both love Eve Dallas and all the other story players. We have all of the "in Death" books. He doesn't like to sit down and read but he will listen to audiobooks in the car. We have sat in the driveway to listen until we find a stopping point.... That's how great these stories are... Now I'm putting them on my MP3 player.
These stories are A+++++.

I love Nora Roberts, but resisted reading her as J. D. Robb. I decided to try this summer and got the Audible version of the first in her "In Death" series. I absolutely love the books. I think the character of Eve is real enough. Although I realize that the character of Roarke is only a dream, I pretend that he really could exist. The narration is excellent, and the narrator is one of my favorites. I'm reading them in order.

Because I have already read all of the In Death series that has been published, and read each new one as it comes out, I already knew it was addictive. So I pretty much had no choice but to get the Audible version of the 1st Eve Dallas book, then the 2nd, and now the 3rd! And I am already resigned to the fact that I will continue until I've listened to them all.

What makes them addictive? For me it's not the violence, or the sex scenes. It's not even really the romance. The mystery/police procedural aspect of the stories is part of what keeps me coming back for more. But the main draws in this series are 1) the characters and their evolving relationships, and 2) the imaginative details of the futuristic world which J.D. Robb has invented.

The author draws her characters so well, and gives them such human characteristics, that you end up really loving these folks and wanting to see them succeed, whether at personal relationships or at work, or at catching another despicable felon. And the development of relationships is the reason that you need to read them in the order they were published.

In Immortal in Death, Leonardo the fashion designer shows up, designs Eve's wedding dress, and becomes Mavis's main squeeze. Peabody loosens up a bit and has a short-lived entanglement with another cop. And at the end Eve and Roark get married in a glorious ceremony.

Of course, the most interesting character development is that of Eve Dallas, a woman who pretty much had to turn off all feeling just to survive to adulthood, who never felt love and doesn't know what to do with it, who as a child never saw an example of someone simply being kind and never had a friend. And now, at full adulthood, she starts to recognize that one really should try to at least be polite if not nice, because it makes people feel good, and makes things easier for her. She starts to recognize it, but she doesn't really know how to do it. Over the course of the books she slowly begins to catch on a little, and that's part of the fun of these books.

I'll keep coming back for my fix as long as this series continues.

I was prepared to read the entire series but found Eve Dallas' personality more than I should handle by the time I read the third novel. She was always defensive and argumentative even with those she claimed to love. I know she had a hard life, but it appeared that she always had to be right and authoritative. I couldn't wait to finish the third novel so I could move on to something more positive.

The story line was good, but Eve's personality was overwhelming and just plain nasty.

Absolutely not.

Everyone else was great except Eve. Too much anger and attitude in Eve's character. I couldn't handle much more by the time I read the third novel. Her character made me angry.

Less anger in Eve's character.

I nearly always love NR's books under her own name, however I've struggled a little with the harsher tone of the "In Death" series. Immortal in Death balances the ugly details of homicide with the character development and light moments that I love in her other books. It could be that I'm just getting to know all of the characters better, but I really enjoyed this one. She's also gotten much better by this, the third book in the series, at keeping you guessing over "who dunnit." The narrator is very good, and while there are others who do a better job distinguishing between male and female voices, she does a great job distinguishing between the characters.

Wedding bells are in the offing for Eve and Roarke. Mavis's new love, the megatalented Leonardo, has designed The Dress. But the violent murder of the city's top model incriminates Mavis and Leonardo in a case that may send Eve's plans skidding off the runway, especially when her escalating flashbacks to her painful past reveal a long-repressed truth.

As with all these books, the mystery is secondary to the growth and interaction of the many characters. Going back to this book--the third in the series, all of which I've read--after several years makes you realize the "genius" of Robb/Roberts' long-running saga about what amounts to an extended family. New characters at the time of this story are now old friends.

A word about narrator Susan Ericksen, who most people (other than me) seem to love. She's not bad. She does an OK job differentiating the characters. I've finally gotten used to her Peabody voice, which was a shock when I first heard it. But she almost invariably "punches" the wrong word in important sentences ("You're not supposed to BE here" is not the same as "YOU'RE not supposed to be here"; the technical term for this, if I may be obnoxious, is "prosody."). A lot of the books' humor and humanity gets lost because of these misreads.

Ericksen needs to spend more time in prep--I get the sense she's reading "cold" and that the producers are in the control booth saying OKlet'shurrythisalong. The shifting scenes run into each other, without the proper pauses that characterize good audio productions.

This series, although not great literature and not everyone's cup of tea, is a unique phenomenon that deserves better production values. Personally I'd love to see them redone with less "chirp" and more nuance.

I am so glad I found this series. I can't seem to put it down. I would recommend it to anyone who likes murder mysteries.