Concealed in Death by J D Robb
A billionaire, Roarke, is supervising work on his new building when he uncovers the body of a girl, concealed behind a false wall – in fact he goes on to find twelve dead girls in total.
His wife, Eve Dallas, is a police lieutenant and determined to find the killer – especially when she discovers that the building used to be a sanctuary for wayward teenagers. As the girls’ identities are slowly investigated by the Police Department’s forensic team, Eve Dallas and her close assistant Peabody gradually get closer to the appalling truth.
This investigation seems to take an incredibly long time to uncover the intricate details, as the chief medical examiner, De Winter slowly pieces together the background history of each victim. Whilst the identity of each body was revealed in time, there was not much detail as to why they were wayward and what drove them to be in this situation.
There is great attention to the endless details involved in getting to the bottom of this mystery and if you are “forensically” inclined, it may fascinate you. Based on this Robb novel, I would have to say that I prefer Peter Robinson and Peter James murder/mystery writing to J. D. Robb.
This is the first of J D Robb’s “In Death”series I have read and whilst it was intriguing up to a point for me, it lacked the “I can’t put it down” tag. I found the frequent use of acronyms and stilted conversations especially jarring and the main characters did not instil in me a great sense of empathy.
It is readable and has a somewhat satisfying ending, but I was able to guess the culprit about three quarters the way through the book, although did not anticipate the final outcome until nearer the end. It’s an OK read, but I couldn’t say it’s a must read.
How many stars do I give this?
