238. & 239. Naked in Death & Kitty and the Silver Bullet
Naked in Death by JD Robb - I managed to get hold of the first two books of this lengthy series at the same time, so the second one should be getting reviewed shortly as well.
All of the books in this series are set in a slightly-advanced future, with our protagonist (Lieutenant Eve Dallas) working as a police detective in New York. Eve is the quintessential cop-with-a-troubled-past, in that she was dumped in an alleyway after years of abuse as a child, much of which she apparently cannot remember but which still affects her interaction with everyone else.
In Naked in Death, she's investigating the murders of two legalised prostitutes, both of whom have been shot multiple times - that in itself is unusual, given that firearms of the sort we're familiar with have been all but eliminated in general use. Only specialist collectors would have them now, collectors like multi-millionaire Rourke, who seems to have a connection with both victims and with whom Eve finds herself becoming involved (in scenes where you can tell our author's alter ego is a romance writer).
There's a degree of suspension of disbelief required to accept the speed at which Eve and Rourke get into a relationship, given their respective emotional baggage. In addition, there are some odd choices in terms of point of view, when we suddenly go from being in Eve's head to either third person omniscient or Rourke's point of view mid-scene. I found it a bit disconcerting, to tell the truth. The series continues in Glory in Death, which will be reviewed here shortly, but the jury's still out on whether I'll be going much further with the series as a whole...
Kitty and the Silver Bullet by Carrie Vaughan - this is book 4 of the series featuring Kitty Norville, late night talk radio DJ and reluctant werewolf, following on from Kitty Takes a Holiday which I reviewed back in October.
Like the previous books, Kitty and the Silver Bullet takes up pretty much immediately where the last one left off. Kitty and her boyfriend Ben, now also a werewolf, have settled into a relationship together - she receives a telephone call to say that her mother is ill that they return to Denver, the place Kitty had never wanted to revisit because of her past history there with the werewolf pack.
There's also a power struggle going on, involving both werewolves and vampires, one in which Kitty and Ben are unable to avoid getting involved, whether they like it or not. There's quite a bit of character development for Kitty in particular since the first book, as she comes to terms with her past history in Denver and what being a werewolf actually means for her. The next book in the series is Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand, and I look forward to seeing how the author deals with the situation she's placed her characters in at the end of this one.
All of the books in this series are set in a slightly-advanced future, with our protagonist (Lieutenant Eve Dallas) working as a police detective in New York. Eve is the quintessential cop-with-a-troubled-past, in that she was dumped in an alleyway after years of abuse as a child, much of which she apparently cannot remember but which still affects her interaction with everyone else.
In Naked in Death, she's investigating the murders of two legalised prostitutes, both of whom have been shot multiple times - that in itself is unusual, given that firearms of the sort we're familiar with have been all but eliminated in general use. Only specialist collectors would have them now, collectors like multi-millionaire Rourke, who seems to have a connection with both victims and with whom Eve finds herself becoming involved (in scenes where you can tell our author's alter ego is a romance writer).
There's a degree of suspension of disbelief required to accept the speed at which Eve and Rourke get into a relationship, given their respective emotional baggage. In addition, there are some odd choices in terms of point of view, when we suddenly go from being in Eve's head to either third person omniscient or Rourke's point of view mid-scene. I found it a bit disconcerting, to tell the truth. The series continues in Glory in Death, which will be reviewed here shortly, but the jury's still out on whether I'll be going much further with the series as a whole...
Like the previous books, Kitty and the Silver Bullet takes up pretty much immediately where the last one left off. Kitty and her boyfriend Ben, now also a werewolf, have settled into a relationship together - she receives a telephone call to say that her mother is ill that they return to Denver, the place Kitty had never wanted to revisit because of her past history there with the werewolf pack.
There's also a power struggle going on, involving both werewolves and vampires, one in which Kitty and Ben are unable to avoid getting involved, whether they like it or not. There's quite a bit of character development for Kitty in particular since the first book, as she comes to terms with her past history in Denver and what being a werewolf actually means for her. The next book in the series is Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand, and I look forward to seeing how the author deals with the situation she's placed her characters in at the end of this one.
