Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780425215685
ISBN: 0425215687
Label: Berkley
Manufacturer: Berkley
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 368
Publication Date: 2007-04-24
Publisher: Berkley
Studio: Berkley

Eve Dallas has a grisly double homicide to solve when two young lovers-both employees of the same prestigious accounting firm-are brutally killed on the same night. It doesn't leave Eve a lot of leftover time to put together a baby shower for her buddy Mavis, but that's supposedly what friends are for.

Now Mavis needs another favor. Tandy Willowby, one of the moms-to-be in Mavis's birthing class, didn't show up for the shower. A recent emigrant from London, Tandy has few friends in New York, and no family-and she was really looking forward to the party. And when Eve enters Tandy's apartment and finds a gift for Mavis's shower wrapped and ready on the table-and a packed bag for the hospital still on the floor next to it-tingling runs up and down her spine.

Normally, such a case would be turned over to Missing Persons. But Mavis wants no one else on the job but Eve-and Eve can't say no. She'll have to track Tandy down while simultaneously unearthing the deals and double-crosses hidden in the files of some of the city's richest and most secretive citizens, in a race against this particularly vicious killer. Luckily, her multimillionaire husband Roarke's expertise comes in handy with the number crunching. But as he mines the crucial data that will break the case wide open, Eve faces an all too real danger in the world of flesh and blood.

Customer Rating:
Summary: 4.5 stars
Comment: What are we up to now? 27? Unreal.

The Story:
The highlight of this book is the birth of Mavis's baby, and that's also the framework in which the story took place--beginning with Eve and Roarke attending a childbirth class with Mavis, and ending with the birth itself.

In the meantime, a young engaged couple who work in an accounting firm are brutally murdered, and signs point to the cause as emanating from within the firm. Later on, Tandy, a pregnant friend of Mavis's, due any day, disappears, and a teary and hormonal Mavis begs Eve to find her.

The Good:
My absolute favorite part of the book wasn't the birth of the baby; it was the dilemma provided when Commander Whitney tells Eve that there's concern about Roarke using information uncovered during the case to further his own business. This was just so well done and realistic. Roarke initially reacts in anger, and tells Eve to drop the case, demanding that she prove her priorities: him or the job. I'm not going to spoil the fun by revealing how they work it out, but this is the number one reason why even after more than a score of books, this is still one of my favorite series: the marital issues and how Eve and Roarke learn to work through them.

And to my surprise, the long-awaited birth of the baby wasn't sappy or overdone. I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised, given the experience of the rest of the series, which shies away from sappiness--Nora never showed Eve & Roarke's wedding, for example--but it was emotional, and a fitting end to the story.

Another huge plus was that Tandy's abduction hit too close to home, not for Eve this time, as so many cases have done, but for Roarke.

Of course, there were too many funny moments and great lines relating to Eve and Roarke's phobia about childbirth to count. And mostly they weren't over-the-top, and didn't grate on my nerves.

The Bad:
The explanation of the clues found in the accounting records was very muddled; we didn't get to know Tandy well enough to worry about her--in fact, I believed until very near the end that she'd end up being a villain; and the two mystery threads meshed a little too conveniently and abruptly.

The Verdict:
This isn't a story to read for the mystery--it's one to read for the characters, and they're done well enough to make up for any deficiencies in the mystery.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Born in Death
Comment: I would really have liked to have listened to this audio book while driving. Unfortunately, it can only be heard on a computer, therefore, the only thing I can say about this product is that I would have really liked to have had the information before ordering.
Compulsive Reader

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Customer Rating:
Summary: fair
Comment: Book was shipped quickly. There was cracking and damage to the spine. Indside was in good shape.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: JD Robb
Comment: Absolutely love this series, have read every book twice and can't wait for the next one to come out.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: It wasn't bad
Comment: I have to say that this wasn't one of my favorites, but I think it was me, and not what Nora wrote. I just couldn't get into the plot until about halfway through. I tried. I read the first few chapters and put it down for MONTHS. I thought maybe I was distracted, but when I started it over a few days ago, I just realized that the subject matter was dry to me. Hard to get started.

I loved the personal dramas, as I always do, and the scenes in the delivery room were great, as were the tense scenes between Eve/Roarke/Whitney. She handled that really well.

I had this one figured out early on, but I do with some of them. This just wasn't my favorite, but it was still good.

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