"Great futuristic romantic thriller"

The summer of 2059 in New York is brutal and tempers are flaring over trifling things. The New York Police and Security Department are kept busy leading to Lieutenant Eve Dallas reaching the end of her rope. When Louis Cogburn, a low level drug dealer who sells to children, suddenly goes berserk killing someone and injuring another person before he dies Eve catches the case.

At the scene of the blood bath she notices that on Louis's computer is the message "ABSOLUTE PURITY ACHIEVED". She orders the computer brought to headquarters where an officer specializing in computers examines it. Eight hours later the officer goes berserk, killing a peer and injuring another before he's killed. Eve immediately realizes that a virus on the computer is being passed on to humans, causing them to die. The Purity Seekers, an organization dedicated to destroying those who hurt the innocents takes credit for Louis's death. When a pedophile is found dead with the same message as Louis received, Eve realizes she has to smoke out the terrorists fast before they mete out their own brand of vigilante justice.

This is the fifteenth in the Death series and it is as fresh and innovative as the first book in this ongoing saga. The characters are growing and evolving with readers liking even the secondary cast almost as much as they adore the hero and heroine. In PURITY IN DEATH, the heroine's husband provides technical advice to Eve, but this time she figures out who the terrorists are and brings them to justice. J.D. Robb has written another fantastic futuristic romantic thriller.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted July 15, 2002

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts, writing as J.D. Robb, comes a shocking new novel in the futuristic series... A frightening new computer virus is spreading and it knows no boundaries...

Summary

Louie Cogburn had spent three days holed up in his apartment, staring at his computer screen. His pounding headache was unbearable - like spikes drilling into his brain. And it is getting worse. Finally, when someone knocked at his door, Louie picked up a baseball bat, opened the door and started swinging...

The first cop on the scene fired his stunner twice, and Louie died instantly. Detective Eve Dallas has taken over the investigation, but there's nothing to explain the man's sudden rage or death. The only clue is a bizarre message left on his computer screen: Absolute Purity Achieved.

And when a second man dies under nearly identical circumstances, Eve starts racking her brain for answers and the courage to face the impossible...that this might be a computer virus able to spread from machine to man...