Desperation in death

This case hits especially close to home for New York homicide detective Eve Dallas. The evidence seems to indicate that Mina was a victim of a child sex-trafficking ring. The clues also seem to suggest that Mina might have been murdered by 13-year-old Dorian Gregg, but Eve believes that Dorian, along with Mina, was actually trying to escape from whatever hell in which they'd been imprisoned. Eve knows firsthand what it is like to be held captive as a young girl, and now she is going to make sure whoever did this to Dorian and Mina pays for their crimes. With the fifty-fifth gritty and completely gripping entry in her Eve Dallas series, Robb (Abandoned in Death, 2022) continues to deliver compelling thrillers with nerve-shredding twists and turns and featuring a gutsy protagonist, who takes guff from no one and investigates her way.

Set in 2061, bestseller Robb's solid 55th novel featuring Lt. Eve Dallas, head of the New York City Police Security Department (after Abandoned in Death), takes Eve and her partner, Det. Delia Peabody, to a crime scene in Manhattan's Battery Park, where a 13-year-old girl has been impaled through the chest with a spear of wood. Eve presses her identi-pad to the victim's right thumb and up pops the name Mina Cabot of Devon, Pa., who vanished from her home months ago while returning from soccer practice. The case leads Eve to other murders, abductions, and the disturbing world of child trafficking, besides stirring up traumatic memories from her own past. Since the principals behind these abhorrent crimes are identified early on, and Eve and company do little investigating as such (electronic devices readily provide needed information), the pleasure, as always, lies in watching Eve stride into danger and triumph over her arrogant adversaries--and in the rapport between Eve and her sexy, supportive, and staggeringly wealthy husband, Roarke. Robb once again delivers exactly what her fans expect. Agent: Amy Berkower, Writers House. (Sept.)

In 2061 New York, two abducted girls attempt to escape from the Pleasure Academy, where they are being trained for a life of sexual slavery. Mina is killed, but Lt. Eve Dallas encounters an injured Dorian stumbling desperately through the streets and is determined to put an end to the academy's operations. Billionaire husband Roarke can help (ultra-wealthy people run the place, and he's got connections), but he's concerned that Eve's boiling rage could do her harm. With a 750,000-copy first printing.

The latest update from 2061 pits Lt. Eve Dallas against a crew of professional-grade child traffickers. All too soon after Dorian Gregg is taken under the wing of Mina Cabot, another 13-year-old Pretty One who's been snatched from the street and imprisoned in the malignant Academy, their friendship ends when Dorian hurts herself during their nocturnal escape attempt and Mina heroically sacrifices herself and ends up dead. Terrified of every stranger she meets, Dorian falls in with a bunch of street kids who show her more kindness than she's seen in years. Meanwhile, Dallas and her partner, Det. Delia Peabody, identify the dead girl as Mina, realize that she's been held captive in luxurious servitude for months (who'd have the interest or the resources for that?), get wind of her vanished companion, and begin a frantic search that will harness the full resources of the NYPSD; Dallas' billionaire husband, Roarke; and those street kids. Locating Dorian, who was criminally neglected by both her mother and the who-cares Child Services employee assigned to her case, turns out to be less trouble than returning her to something like a normal life, a transition for which Dallas draws freely on her own traumatic history. Robb strains to generate suspense from Dallas' duel with an illegal organization as formidable in its way as her own legal one, and a good deal better organized. For better or worse, though, this is a full-throated but not especially original indictment of child trafficking wrapped up in a futuristic procedural. Target audience: readers interested in the differences between Pretty Ones, Servants, Breeders, and Pets. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

This case hits especially close to home for New York homicide detective Eve Dallas. The evidence seems to indicate that Mina was a victim of a child sex-trafficking ring. The clues also seem to suggest that Mina might have been murdered by 13-year-old Dorian Gregg, but Eve believes that Dorian, along with Mina, was actually trying to escape from whatever hell in which they'd been imprisoned. Eve knows firsthand what it is like to be held captive as a young girl, and now she is going to make sure whoever did this to Dorian and Mina pays for their crimes. With the fifty-fifth gritty and completely gripping entry in her Eve Dallas series, Robb (Abandoned in Death, 2022) continues to deliver compelling thrillers with nerve-shredding twists and turns and featuring a gutsy protagonist, who takes guff from no one and investigates her way. Copyright 2022 Booklist Reviews.

In 2061 New York, two abducted girls attempt to escape from the Pleasure Academy, where they are being trained for a life of sexual slavery. Mina is killed, but Lt. Eve Dallas encounters an injured Dorian stumbling desperately through the streets and is determined to put an end to the academy's operations. Billionaire husband Roarke can help (ultra-wealthy people run the place, and he's got connections), but he's concerned that Eve's boiling rage could do her harm. With a 750,000-copy first printing.

Set in 2061, bestseller Robb's solid 55th novel featuring Lt. Eve Dallas, head of the New York City Police Security Department (after Abandoned in Death), takes Eve and her partner, Det. Delia Peabody, to a crime scene in Manhattan's Battery Park, where a 13-year-old girl has been impaled through the chest with a spear of wood. Eve presses her identi-pad to the victim's right thumb and up pops the name Mina Cabot of Devon, Pa., who vanished from her home months ago while returning from soccer practice. The case leads Eve to other murders, abductions, and the disturbing world of child trafficking, besides stirring up traumatic memories from her own past. Since the principals behind these abhorrent crimes are identified early on, and Eve and company do little investigating as such (electronic devices readily provide needed information), the pleasure, as always, lies in watching Eve stride into danger and triumph over her arrogant adversaries—and in the rapport between Eve and her sexy, supportive, and staggeringly wealthy husband, Roarke. Robb once again delivers exactly what her fans expect. Agent: Amy Berkower, Writers House. (Sept.)