Product Description

When history teacher Craig Foster is found dead in his classroom, his young wife is devastated, and his family, friends and colleagues all shocked. The two ten-year old students who discovered his body may be traumatised for life. Magdalena Percell, an old flame of Eve's billionaire husband Roarke, has turned up in New York, and she's anything but innocent. Unfortunately, Roarke seems blind to Magdalena's maniuplations, but not to her shapely figure and flirtatious ways. But Eve will have to put aside her potential heartbreak, for a while at least- because another man has just turned up dead...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13294 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Review
"'Roberts is a superstar' NEW YORK TIMES"

About the Author
Nora Roberts is the author of more than one hundred New York Times bestsellers, with more than 300 million copies of her books in print. Under the pen name J. D. Robb, she is author of the bestselling futuristic suspense series. Visit her website at www.noraroberts.com.

Customer Reviews

"could this be the best yet"!!
For me, the release of a new jd robb novel is as exciting as christmas - the anticipation & the joy of reading a new book by her. My husband thinks i'm mad - what does he know - if your a fan you'll know what i mean.

Innocent in death, i think is jd robb's best work yet!. From the very begining she has you guessing as to why a seemingly innocent teacher is murdered & by whom. The teacher is well liked & loved, he enjoys his job & loves his wife - so why was he murdered. There seems to be a variety of suspects, but the vital links just don't work for Dallas, she is stumped & finds that annoying. On her personal front, Dallas has competion with a stunning blonde who was once involved with her husband Roarke & all the signs show that this stunner still has some hold over him - Dallas is extremely worried!

There are two storie's in this novel & they are both linked together very well - while reading i was struck by how much of the writing ressembles some of jd's earlier work, the plot & charactors are really interesting & i was always stuck with who could be the killer - there's a great deal going on, the thought process is well set out. In some of her previous works it felt sloppy & dare i say it - a bit far fetched. occasionally you just got fed up with Dallas & Roarke battling it out in a fight with the "baddies", who always seem to get Dallas on her own - this book has none of that.
Dallas, is almost completely on her own in the book & that makes it more enjoyable, this is intelligent writing with a very good story & at times quite sad. I felt all of Dallas's pain when she thinks that she is losing Roarke, she has been through so much & Roarke is just perfect for her.
The killer , although not a shock in the end - is still very hard hitting & calculated, with consistently good writing that you can quite belive.

There are a few points to this book that are memorable:
the first being that summerset is nice to Dallas & vice versa - incredible i know, you have to read the book to find out why.
the second, is that Dallas punches Roarke in the face!!!!
your going to have to read the book to find out why - you won't be disappointed.

I rally do think this is the best yet & i hope that these book's surrounding Dallas, Roarke & the gang will continue for some time to come.
I would like to see more of Mcnab & Peabody & Baxter & trueheart.
Fabulous reading - Enjoy.

Emotional Content & Plot
This is the latest of the long runnig sci-fi romance mystery series featuring New York cop Eve Dallas and her high powered global magnate husband Roarke. If you've never heard of these before don't start here go back and read Naked In Death. If you're already up to speed, well then you're in for a treat.

If you found Born's mystery lack-luster but enjoyed the characterisation; and if you found Memory's background tantalising but thought the mystery and the ensemble team were a little off then Innocent smooths out all of those gripes.

This time around Eve and her flippant sidekick Peabody are called to investigate the murder of a popular young teacher at a private school. Our top cops are stumped as to motive although there are plenty of people who were on scene and had the opportunity. When another teacher is found dead; their is plenty to motivate his killing but this further muddies the case. Eve's real problems begin though when an old flame of Roarke's called Magdalena blows into town intent on stirring up trouble.

This is easily the best of the recent In Deaths (although Origin rates pretty high on that score too) the appearances of secondary characters such as Dr Mira, Louise, Mavis and Leonardo are all noteworthy and add to the emotional content of the plot without feeling shoe-horned in. Poor Eve is overcome with fear that Roarke will compare her with the polished Magdalena and be disappointed in his ultimate choice.

Of course everybody who has read about this couple knows nothing could be further from the truth, but the tension and the heartbreak as Robb writes it makes it seem plausible. The scenes of a newly vulnerable Eve are heart-warming, and Robb has finally found a way to relate the childhood nightmares into Eve's present concerns without being reduced to retreading familiar ground.

The killer I had my suspicions about pretty early but it was written up in such a way that I found myself more intrigued. Stand out points on this one are: Eve and Roarke's reactions to Magdalena, the way the team rallies around a vulnerable Eve, particularly the conversation she has with Mira: it's funny and sweet and shows just how far Eve has come along in her personal life. Other highlights were Summerset sticking up for Eve, and the final end game to catch the killer.

If there are any low-points I would say that the dialogue isn't as smooth as in other books, and we're missing a little of the usual sensory descriptions of places. If I wanted to get really nitpicky I could say that Eve and Peabody's dialogue in particular doesn't zing with their usual humour but their relationship is very firmly on a new level, one which Peabody doesn't defer so often to her Lieutenant and they seem more like equals, which is no bad thing.

This is the first In Death since Origin where I had to stay up all night until I got to the last page. This is one you can buy in confidence knowing that nearly all of the key ingrediants are in place.

Another Fantastic Story
This is the latest in the series of the ' ... In Death' stories and I would fully agree with the previous reviewer who says - don't start reading these books with this one but at the beginning of the series.

In this story Dallas and Peabody are called to the scene of death at a private school where one of the teachers has been found by a couple of students. As he was well liked by collegues and pupils alike and very much in love with his wife, there seems to be no motive to murder this man. Dallas has her suspects however, but when the one at the top of her list is also found dead, she has to rethink. She is not at her best since an old flame of Rourke's has come into town and has made it quite clear that she wants to continue their relationship where it was left off. This side story reveals the more human side of Eve and shows that she isn't as tough as she thinks she is. It was also good to see that her friends and collegues and even Summerset rally round her to give support in her hour of need.
The book has all the twists and turns you have come to expect from Robb's writing and is truely well worth reading.