Random in Death is a strong addition to the Eve Dallas series, with action, intrigue and our favourite characters.
“Somebody jabbed me, she said, and yeah, that sounds accurate. The wound on the arm’s fresh. It’s also puffy, inflamed. Potentially, she could have self-inflicted, but there are no marks on her person and no signs of illegals abuse. ME to confirm.”
A boyfriend or girlfriend, maybe, who pressured her into trying something new? A rebellious, youthful impulse that went terribly wrong?
He jabbed me.
Or something else.
Random in Death is a strong addition to the Eve Dallas series, with action, intrigue and our favourite characters.
Jenna’s parents had finally given in, and there she was, at a New York club with her best friends, watching the legendary band Avenue A, carrying her demo in hopes of slipping it to the guitarist, Jake Kincade. Then, from the stage, Jake catches her eye, and smiles. It’s the best night of her life.
It’s the last night of her life.
Minutes later, Jake’s in the alley getting some fresh air, and the girl from the dance floor comes stumbling out, sick and confused and deathly pale. He tries to help, but it’s no use. He doesn’t know that someone in the crowd has jabbed her with a needle—and when his girlfriend Nadine arrives, she knows the only thing left to do for the girl is call her friend, Lieutenant Eve Dallas.
After everyone on the scene is interviewed, lab results show a toxic mix of substances in the victim’s body—and for an extra touch of viciousness, the needle was teeming with infectious agents. Dallas searches for a pattern: Had any boys been harassing Jenna? Was she engaging in risky behavior or caught up in something shady? But there are no obvious clues why this levelheaded sixteen-year-old, passionate about her music, would be targeted.
And that worries Dallas. Because if Jenna wasn’t targeted, if she was just the random, unlucky victim of a madman consumed by hatred, there are likely more deaths to come.
Random in Death is book 58 in the Eve Dallas series, and it had me gripped just as tightly as the first one. I Love the Eve Dallas books because I know what I’m going to get: some steamy interaction between Eve and Roarke, a cunning mystery and a cool near-future world. Random in Death delivers on everything I love about this series. As a note, even though this is a very long series, you don’t have to read them in order. I always recommend you read Naked in Death, the first in the series, just so you understand the worldbuilding, but I think you could also just dive into this one if you felt like exploring the world. There just may be a few things you don’t understand and characters you don’t know, but you pick up on it quickly.
Firstly, I love that there was a lot of pagetime with the whole cast of characters; of course we have Eve and Roarke on the page, but we also get Peabody and Nadine and Mavis and their significant others. The relationships and secondary storylines about their lives always adds a layer of humanity to a police procedural type story. Eve and Roarke are, of course, still a fabulous main couple. Their romance and marriage is strong in this story. I think, after 58 books, that Roarke is probably my favourite romance story billionaire husband: he’s strong, and powerful and has the world at his fingertips, but is such a partner to Eve, and does everything in his power to be better for her. God that’s sexier than guys just throwing around their money because they can, you know?
I really enjoyed the storyline of these random teenage girl deaths. When a killer tracks an individual and has a clear motive for a killing that’s scary. But to be randomly selected for arbitrary reasons and have your life just ended for the killer’s fun? That’s completely terrifying. This murder spree feels almost ripped from the headlines with the random transit murders that have made the news over the past couple of years. As a detective, how do you even start to find a killer that is seemingly operating randomly? I enjoyed watching Eve and her team figure this mystery out. Eve and her team are running against the clock to try and figure out who the murderer is before he or she kills again and again. This story is fast-paced, and I couldn’t put it down. I read it basically in one sitting because it had me so gripped.
After 58 books, Random in Death still feels fresh and relevant and is an excellent read for the Eve Dallas fans and newbies alike.
Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
