TITLE: ETERNITY IN DEATH
AUTHOR: J.D. ROBB
Date: 26/10/2013
Grade: 4.5
Details: no. 24.5 “In Death”
Audio Book, 3 Discs
Narrator: Susan Erickson
Library
The Blurb:
“When club-hopping bad girl
Tiara Kent is found dead in her plush Manhattan
apartment, the killing has all the earmarks of a vampire attack. The
ever-practical Lieutenant Eve Dallas has to deal with superstitious cops
carrying garlic and stakes, as well as the ever-hysterical press. None of the
wealthy young victim’s friends seem to know much about the Dark Prince she has
been secretly seeing. The chase to stop him before he kills again will lead Eve
and her team into areas of the city that not even the most intrepid cop wants
to visit, and into the very heart of darkness.”
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I may have to
create a new grading system for audio books; one in which I give one rating to
the story and, when necessary, another one to the narrator.
Mind you, the
narrator in this book was mostly fine. I liked the way she made Eve sound, and
had no issues with the way Peabody
and almost every other character was portrayed. But the Irish accent she put on
for Roarke was diabolical. As my husband (who is Irish and was “forced” to
listen with me since we were on a road trip together) pointed out, this was the
“Darby O’Gill and the Little People” variety of Irish. Both of us were waiting
for the “begorraghs” and “top of the mornings” to start. Not that J.D. Robb
would ever write those clichés but Roarke on these disks sounded like they were
constantly on the tip of his tongue.
I don’t want to be
too harsh. I get that the accents are used to distinguish between characters,
and I know that the Irish accent may not be the easiest to mimic for non Irish
people but that still didn’t stop this exaggerated accent from taking me out of
the story. I found myself wanting to laugh through the tender and hot moments
and actually grinning through the tension. Not to mention that it actually
managed to irritate the husband. Finally I have to point out that this version
of Roarke sounded like he had just stepped of the plane from Dublin
and not like the man who had lived in America for years and had retained
only some of his Irish lilt. (My husband would like to add that nobody in Dublin has ever sounded
like Roarke does in this book. In fact, I don’t think the accent as used in
this book resembles any accent actually used on this Island.)
Time to get of my
hobbyhorse and get to the actual story, which was exactly what I expected it to
be. In fact I’m absolutely delighted I managed to get my hands on this “In
Death” novella. These shorter, in between titles are next to impossible to get
in Irish shops so I tend to miss out on them, much to my regret. Discovering
that my library actually had one came as a very welcome surprise.
As far as “In
Death” stories go, this one was great fun. All the aspects you’d expect in an
Eve Dallas mystery are here; the rather gruesome but highly imaginative murder,
the snarky but affectionate banter between Eve and Peabody, the steamy
interactions between Roarke and Eve, the action filled finale all showed up
giving me exactly what I want and expect from these books.
And I love the
comical twist the vampire story-line brought. I enjoyed that everybody around
Eve was willing to buy into the possibility that they were actually dealing
with a vampire to some extend. Eve seems to be the only one completely
unimpressed by the man who acts the vampire; the only one convinced that it
will be normal procedure and normal weapons that will bring him down. And so
Eve, much to her exasperation, finds herself surrounded by people taking precautions
in the form of garlic, silver crosses and wooden stakes. And the fact that at
least one of those artifacts actually turns out to come in quite handy only
made the story better. But nothing in this book was better than the moment Eve
used her stock reply “bite me” only for it to turn around and actually, well,
bite her.
I admire the way
the author managed to bring us a novella without it ever feeling that she had
to take shortcuts in order to tell her story. This is a complete story which
happens to be shorter than the main novels while giving the reader everything
they would expect to find. I’m going to have to start hunting for all the other
novellas I managed to miss – although maybe not on audio.
