Faithless in Death: An Eve Dallas Novel (In Death Series #52)

by J. D. Robb

Overview

In the new Eve Dallas police thriller from #1 New York Times-bestselling author J. D. Robb, what looked like a lover’s quarrel turned fatal has larger—and more terrifying—motives behind it…

The scene in the West Village studio appears to be classic crime-of-passion: two wineglasses by the bed, music playing, and a young sculptor named Ariel Byrd with the back of her head bashed in. But when Dallas tracks down the wealthy Upper East Side woman who called 911, the details don’t add up. Gwen Huffman is wealthy, elegant, comforted by her handsome fiancé as she sheds tears over the trauma of finding the body—but why did it take an hour to report it? And why is she lying about little things?

As Eve and her team look into Gwen, her past, and the people around her, they find that the lies are about more than murder. As with sculpture, they need to chip away at the layers of deception to find the shape within—and soon they’re getting the FBI involved in a case that involves a sinister, fanatical group and a stunning criminal conspiracy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250272744
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	02/09/2021
Series:	In Death (Eve Dallas) Series , #52
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	1,912
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 6.40(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

J.D. ROBB is the pseudonym for #1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts. She is the author of over 200 novels, including the futuristic suspense In Death series. There are more than 500 million copies of her books in print.

Hometown:

Keedysville, Maryland

Date of Birth:

1950

Place of Birth:

Silver Spring, Maryland

Website:

http://www.noraroberts.com/

Editorial Reviews

12/14/2020

The murder of sculptress Ariel Byrd in her West Village apartment drives bestseller Robb’s well-crafted 52nd police procedural set in mid-21st-century New York City (after 2020’s Shadows in Death). Oddly, the 911 call reporting Ariel’s murder comes from the Upper East Side, from Gwen Huffman, the scion of a rich and powerful family. When Lt. Eve Dallas of the New York City Police and Security Department questions Gwen in the company of her lawyer-cum-fiancé, Eve finds many inconsistencies in Gwen’s story that are soon revealed as lies. Aided by the FBI; Eve’s husband, Roarke (a billionaire technology guru); and some plucky housewives, Eve and her colleagues in the NYPSD uncover a deadly conspiracy that includes some of the most influential men in the country. Robb skillfully balances the personal and professional lives of her protagonists, all the while maintaining a quick pace that keeps the investigation squarely in the frame. The final triumph of right over might will leave readers exhilarated. This long-running series shows no sign of losing steam. Agent: Amy Berkower, Writers House. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"With the fifty-second exceptional entry in her Eve Dallas series, Robb (aka Nora Roberts) once again hits her readers’ sweet spot by serving up another addictive mix of high-octane pacing, memorable characterization, and ingenious plotting." - Booklist

"This long-running series shows no sign of losing steam." - Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

09/01/2020

In Armstrong's A Stranger in Town, Det. Casey Duncan learns that off-the-grid Rockton may be cashiered (50,000-copy first printing). Award-winning YA fiction author Cosimano's first adult novel, Finlay Donovan Is Killing It, features a struggling suspense writer mistaken as a serial killer (100,000-copy first printing). In Finch's An Extravagant Death, Victorian-era sleuth Sir Charles Lennox takes his first trip to America (100,000-copy first printing). In Harper's The Survivors, Kieran Elliot returns to his coastal hometown and relives a childhood tragedy (125,000-copy first printing). Harrod-Eagles's Cruel as the Grave has Bill Slider doubting that a fitness trainer was killed by his girlfriend. Ide's Smoke marks the return of Isaiah Quintabe, the Sherlock Holmes of South Central Los Angeles. Mosley's Blood Grove puts popular protagonist Easy Rawlins front and center again (40,000-copy first printing). In Robb's Faithless in Death, Lt. Eve Dallas wonders if an angry lover really did kill sculptor Ariel Byrd (750,000-copy first printing). Todd's A Fatal Lie, Inspector Ian Rutledge seeks the identity of a stranger who tumbled from a Welsh aqueduct. Westerson's Spiteful Bones has Crispin Guest, London's famed Tracker, untangle the mystery around a bound skeleton found in a manor wall.

Library Journal

2021-01-13
Lt. Eve Dallas follows the path from the murder of a West Village sculptor to a fearsomely powerful cult.

Dallas and Detective Delia Peabody’s snap forensic analysis in the apartment of Ariel Byrd suggests that the young woman enjoyed wine and sex shortly before she was beaten to death with her own mallet. The absence of a condom or any trace of seminal fluids suggests that her final partner was a woman—perhaps Gwendolyn Huffman, the friend who’d had an appointment to sit for a sculpture. Dallas and Peabody, who take against Gwen from the get-go, derive particular pleasure from attacking the tissue of lies she fed them during their first encounter, and their second, in one of the New York Police and Security Department's interrogation rooms, breaks her wide open. But Gwen didn’t kill her lover; that job seems to have fallen to a member of Natural Order, the cult the Rev. Stanton Wilkey founded with significant financial backing from Gwen’s wealthy parents. Natural Order had counted on Gwen’s ability to lure her fiance, millionaire attorney Merit Caine, into their clutches, and when Ariel threatened the impending nuptials, one of them took her out. But which one? As Dallas and Peabody see in a visit to the cult’s closely guarded compound, Wilkey runs a tight ship, and it’s hard to believe that any of his underlings would have gone freelance without authorization from their racist, misogynistic, anti-gay, rapist master. As the franchise heroine squares off against an outsize villain who ticks all the anti-social boxes, readers around the world will be united in their absolute certainty about what’s coming next.

It’s as if Robb armed Offred, gave her backup, and turned Margaret Atwood’s dystopian fable into a comic book.

Kirkus Reviews

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