Brotherhood in Death by J.D. Robb

We religiously watch The Walking Dead in our house. We made it through the exciting adventures of Rick and Shane, the ridiculous scenes of women forever chopping carrots at the farm in the second season, the monotony of the prison, and the stupidness that was the Beth character. Two Sundays ago, there was what I thought was a great mid-season premiere, but it was a bit intense.  And then this past Sunday, the episode was a sort of buddy cop film following Rick and my television boyfriend Daryl.  It was lighthearted at times, but the plot was developed forward and there were moments of real character development.

I have complained endlessly about the declining quality of the In Death books from J. D. Robb. But this book, while clearly not as magical as the first dozen or so books in the series, is pretty darn good.  It was a palate cleanser like last week's The Walking Dead. I audibly chuckled a lot - Eve mangling an idiom and string out the metaphor for pages, Eve starting to figure out the candy thief situation, and Peabody's squeamishness over things she should have long ago stopped freaking out about - but I also felt like there was a plot.  It was refreshing from the serious, monotonous, over dramatic recent books.

Roarke is still my least favorite character and while I recognize that Robb's readership would disappear without the Eve and Roarke relationship, I would like him to go away for a book or two.  I loved spending time with the Miras in this book and while I do miss some of our other characters (Mavis and Leonardo come back!), I thought this book did a nice job of fleshing out the Miras.

One of the major reasons I still think the early books were better was because Robb really incorporated the futuristic setting in those books and now the setting is really not that crucial. It might as well be happening in 2015. But I liked those small details that showed that the US had become a different place in the early books such as the strangeness of a gun death after the Urban Wars, the different types of drugs available for junkies, the lack of "real food," and just the day to day stuff that was different like the Auto Chefs and droids.  Anyway, that's my main gripe that is preventing me from saying this book is a good as the early stuff.

But it is the best of the series in a very long time.