I am pleased that in this book Roarke and Eve are the central focus, even more than the mystery of who is the serial killer. Eve is becoming more and more comfortable with the various connections she makes, openly admitting to being Nadine Furst's friend without any prompting! And we meet all of our old friends, some taking more pages than others (McNab, Dr Mira, Baxter & Trueheart are definitely backstage here, but still able to carry off significant roles in the action, especially the latter two).
Regular readers of the series I'm sure will enjoy the book as much as I do. Eve is developing, as is her relationships with Roarke in particular, but also with her widening circle of friends and acquaintances. Roarke grows here too, which is a different element to bring into the book. As usual the writing is superb and the vision of the not so distant future is intriguing. I find with Robb/erts that it is these little, deft touches, sprinkling world-building context into the tale with such as skilful hand that highlights what a talented writer she is.
With Roarke mostly out of the way, Roberts concentrates strongly on Dallas and Peabody's investigation of the killings; other regulars like McNabb, Feeney, Nadine Furst and Dr Mira make only peripheral (though fairly important) appearances.
Just as an earlier volume (Seduction in Death) seemed to take a major part of its inspiration from the Leopold/Loeb murders that also inspired Hitchcok's "Rope", this volume is, once all is revealed, somewhat reminiscent of both "Psycho" and "Red Dragon".
What Roarke discovers in Dublin and County Clare, after revelations from a social worker at the refuge for abused women and children he is funding, may well change the future course of the series. (And, here, there is an interesting resonance with the [sadly] now defunct, often brilliant DC comic "Hitman", in which anti-hero professional killer Tommy Monaghan makes a similar journey to discover similar history... but with widely differing results.)
Someone is killing brilliant and beautiful young people, photographing them and sending the imagery to Nadine Furst at Channel 75; apparently the killer seems to believe that somehow he will, through his post-mortem photos of the victims in life-like poses, capture what he calls their "light" and, perhaps, become immortal if he can capture enough such "light".
As usual, Dallas takes these attacks on the innocent and defenseless as a personal affront, and doggedly tracks down the killer.
Also as usual, while the form of the books is police-procedural stories set in a science-fictional milieu, there are lapses in logic as the story advances by coincidence and intuition. ((This does NOT make it a bad story as such, just one in which the reader doesn't have much chance of solving it ahead of the protagonist.)) As often in this series, the identity of the killer sort of comes out of left field, though when revealed, both plausibility and consistency are there.
One thing that sometimes causes me to drop the rating of books in this series by a star or so from where i usually would rate them based on the story alone, is the background.
Dallas and Roarke and Co are operating in the New York City of 2059. The history of now till then as she Roberts has sketched it in, involving something called the "Urban Wars", is acceptably plausible (and conveniently vague); but the world that they live in bothers me.
Most specifically, in the year 2059 (which is, after all, only fifty-six years in our future), Roberts would have us believe that interstellar -- not interplanetary but interSTELLAR -- travel has become so common that there are luxury resorts on the worlds of other stars, and that faster-than-light interplanetary/interstellar communications not only exist but are apparently at about the level that long-distance phone calls were, forty or so years ago -- expensive, but not particularly so.
I don't believe it. And, while i am willing to perform that trick called "willing suspension of disbelief" up to a point, i am sometimes jarred while reading these books (and others, more overtly pitched as "science fiction", for that matter) by a necessity to hang my disbelief by the neck until dead.
But, that said, this is a worthy entry in a series that consistently delivers solid reading enjoyment, good if not particularly plausible cop action, the occasional little gruesome shiver, and plenty of enjoyable interaction between the members of a well-established and solidly-constructed cast.
And more than usual of Dallas and Summerset's running feud, and of their joint love of and concern for Roarke.
(Which reminds me, i suspect that one of the characters in this book may well become a new semi-regular in the series.)
There's no doubt that Pierce Brosnan would make a wonderful Roarke, if anyone were making a film. But i can't, for the life of me, come up with an actress to cast as Dallas...
Much of this story revolves around Roarke¡¦s past as well as Dallas¡¦s dealing with their marriage when the tough gets going. There is quite a few sections that deal with what Roarke has thought was his parentage. I won¡¦t spoil it anymore.
Also in this one Summerset and Gallahad have an encounter in the start that will leave Dallas with more to deal with that she had hoped for during the month. Not to mention that Peabody seems to be trying to make her eye twitch more than normal ?º
In this story the murder is sending Nadine photos of the dead before they are found and telling her where to find them. Dallas along with Peabody, Feeney, McNab, Baxter and Trueheart take on this killer.
Like an intense episode of CSI, J.D Robb swerves her 16th vehicle with a frenetic pace and futuristic crime procedurals with more depth in her central protagonists Eve and Roarke. Marital blues storm ahead as Roarke traces his blurred pasts and discovers his father had brutally murdered his tender Irish maid of a mom. Eve is caught between her job and insecurities towards marriage, inducing a fragility that sheds away her resilient, edgy mantle.
Portrait in Death blasted off with a bold and imaginative concept on a gripping obsession of immortality and light but its denouements and depth faltered with Robb's emphasis on the action and characters. It is thus strait-jacketed into a futuristic thriller.
And plenty of thrills it gives - with the occasional snappy humor between Eve and her assistant Peabody to relieve the thickening tension. J.D Robbs draws her portrait with an atmosphere of darkness - stark in its deranged killer to his disillusioned motives and a wild climax to rescue a teammate from the clutches of the killer. This is a lean hard pulsating machine strictly designed to thrill with chills.
