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annathepiperIs the In Death series really up to 23 books? Wow. No wonder it's getting harder for it to have installments that stand out from the crowd. The last few have been more or less "meh", and this one didn't particularly grab me either. It wasn't bad reading--just didn't have any particular substance. The mystery was simple and unsurprising, and I was tired of the subplot of "Eve and Roarke are panicky about Mavis having her baby" a few books ago. (At least the good news is, now they can actually stop the "Mavis is having her baby" subplot, since we do get some resolution with that. A bit heavy on the schmaltz with that resolution, though, and I mostly spent that scene going "yeah yeah yeah finish it up already".)
There were a couple of places in the writing, too, that looked like they were still on first-draft status and hadn't quite been properly edited. I caught myself going "wait, what?" and having to go back and re-read several preceding paragraphs when it looked as if a scene break was supposed to have happened and didn't. And that head-hopping thing? Noticed it here too, though at least Robb keeps it down to a miminum. Two and a half stars.
There were a couple of places in the writing, too, that looked like they were still on first-draft status and hadn't quite been properly edited. I caught myself going "wait, what?" and having to go back and re-read several preceding paragraphs when it looked as if a scene break was supposed to have happened and didn't. And that head-hopping thing? Noticed it here too, though at least Robb keeps it down to a miminum. Two and a half stars.