Obsidian's Reviews > Encore in Death

Updated review as of January 3, 2024.

Re-read since I needed a palate cleanser after the last "In Death" book I just read. This is still probably one of the best books that Robb has put out in the latter part of the series.

Solid

Great installment of In Death. Thank goodness there wasn't a master serial killer wanting to spar with Eve. Book started a little dry, but then got really good. Really liked this. I liked the murder(s) and the why too. Just solid police work in this one. Also reduced Nadine time (thankfully) and reduced house decoration conversations (thankfully). Please lets stop with the movie syndication stuff.

"Encore in Death" kind of takes us back to the roots of the series. We have Eve investigating a murder. Very important people are involved. Eve solves it without actually using Roarke that much at all. And then the guilty party is caught, confesses, and the book ends. I won't actually cry about this by the way. The cults and super serial killers started to bug me after a while. Though the world of celebrity in the In Death world is often tedious now because of the whole Icove movie thing, at least we can see how Eve can use it to her advantage. Now never let of us speak of that thing again.

"Encore in Death" follows Eve as she and Peabody end up with a case of an A list movie star who is found dead during a party he and his Tony winning wife were throwing before he left to film a movie on location. The man was poisoned with cyanide (yes...give me old school murder weapons people). Eve quickly learns the man was well liked/admired/even loved but his wife was a bit terse and not as lovable. When Eve realizes that the wife may have been the target, then the case shifts and even goes back to a death that took place over 25 years earlier.

I thought this was really solid. You know why, Eve was actually wrong in this one. She didn't catch something and it also made her more human to me. Like I said, the cults and super serial killers and all of that have turned Eve into a Mary Sue type character for a few books now. I liked she struggled on this one and honestly got onto the wrong path. Heck even readers were all probably on the wrong one with this. And it made it a more fun read to follow all of the pieces and resolve things. Also we just have Eve and Roarke being a solid and happy married couple (thank God). I also laughed a bunch of times during conversations they were having (which has been a while believe me). I still glossed over the sex scenes, but that's just me not really caring anymore about them in that way. Glad they still get up to things so to speak. But honestly this was just good. Roarke has a job and it always baffled me he would be missing for days/hours at end to help out Eve and how none of his Board had a problem with it.

Peabody still decorating. I maybe laughed when Eve gave her 2 minutes permission to talk about the house. I think Robb has been reading our reviews LOL. We all are over it. Please let that house be done in the next book. I love decorating and renovating my house. I don't care to read about in fictional character's homes though. Peabody was good in this one, we really get to see her growing as a detective. The annoying sidekick who apparently has no sense at all seems to be slowly diminishing. There was a moment there when Peabody was all a flutter about meeting the wife of the man who got murdered that made me want to shake her slightly.

McNabb, Morris, Reo, Summerset, etc. are all here. We had Nadine at three points in the book, I mostly skipped over her. She's another one I wouldn't be sad at having a reduced role in the books. She's still somehow a super journalist with her own t.v. show and also is writing Oscar winning screenplays and oh yeah books. I cannot.

The writing was really good and the flow at first was a bit slow. But things did pick up. We also got some hints about Eve and Roarke taking a vacation to Greece soon and there 3 year anniversary is coming up. I think in that logic Bella is like 10.

The twists in this one were really good and I enjoyed watching all the loose ends being tied up. I didn't favorite this since I rarely go back and re-read any of the later In Death books.

ETA: I also liked that we got to know more about Roarke and Eve in this one. Roarke's go to comfort food is fish and chips. Eve wears a sleep shirt a lot in this book. Do you all recall her wearing one before? She talks about washing dishes, I didn't even know she did dishes. She even talks about helping Roarke clean up their bedroom. There was a lot of domestic pulses in this one which were nice to read about. I think at one point I used to joke that Roarke and Eve never went to the bathroom because it's rarely mentioned about Eve doing much more than a spin in something and Roarke is always dressed when Eve wakes up.