"Christmas the Eve and Roarke way"

Fans like myself that love the character of Eve Dallas, know nothing shakes her. She is a tough cop, but when she is confronted with her past, it shakes her to the core. Trudy Lombard is waiting for her in her office, claiming she is her mother and she finally found her. Except she wasn't Eve's mother but the first foster mother she had after leaving the hospital in Dallas. At first Eve doesn't remember Trudy but then it all comes back, the cruelty she inflicted on Eve after what she went through with her father. She is so badly shaken that she leaves Central with barely a word to Peabody. Eve just wants to go home and feel safe and deal with it on her own, but she doesn't count on Peabody contacting Eve's husband Roarke.

Roarke knows what Trudy is after and isn't disappointed when she shows up at his offices. When he lets her know that there is no way Roarke is going to pay for blackmail and tells her to forget about further contact or else she will be sorry. I personally loved it when he puts the fear of God in her eyes.

When Trudy winds up dead, Eve must put her personal demons aside and find out who ended Trudy's life. It will have her looking back at a past that she spent a lot of time forgetting. Trudy as a murder victim is very unsympathetic, but you are curious as to who did the deed. The trail of suspects is long as Eve finds out she was the first of many foster children placed with Trudy.

There is nothing better to read in the middle of winter then a book featuring Eve Dallas and Roarke and MEMORY IN DEATH will not disappoint fans. Taking place during the Christmas season it is funny to watch Eve not shop for presents again. MEMORY IN DEATH is also steamier then the past few books which may have you running outside to cool off.

I highly recommend you saving any gift cards you got for Christmas and use it for MEMORY IN DEATH, it will be the best present you can give to yourself.

Barb Hicks

Reviewed by Barb Hicks
Posted December 15, 2005

Summary

The #1 New York Times-bestselling author of Survivor in Death has Lieutenant Eve Dallas walking a tightrope between her professional duties and her private demons.

Eve Dallas is one tough cop. She's got no problem dealing with a holiday reveler in a red suit who plunges thirty-seven stories and gives new meaning to the term "sidewalk Santa." But when she gets back to the station and Trudy Lombard shows up, it's all Eve can do to hold it together. Instantly, she's thrown back into the past, to the days when she was a vulnerable, traumatized girl—trapped in foster care with the twisted woman who now sits in front of her, smiling.

Trudy claims she just wanted to see how Eve was doing. But Eve's husband, Roarke, suspects otherwise—and his suspicions prove correct when Trudy arrives at his office, demanding money in exchange for keeping the ugly details of his wife's childhood a secret. Barely restraining himself, Roarke shows her the door—and makes it clear that she'd be wise to get out of New York and never bother him or his wife again.

But just a few days later, Trudy's found on the floor of her hotel room, a mess of bruises and blood. A cop to the core, Eve is determined to solve the case, if only for the sake of Trudy's bereaved son. Unfortunately, Eve is not the only one to have suffered at this woman's hands, and she and Roarke will follow a circuitous, dangerous path to find out who turned this victimizer into a victim.