Thank you, again, and again, and again, to Kevin Tipple for his reviews. Before I run his review of J.D. Robb’s first In Death novel, let me give you the link to Kevin’s own site. If you haven’t checked it out, you should. When you see that his site is called “Kevin’s Corner”, you’ll understand why I refer to his reviews here as “Kevin’s Corner Annex”. Here’s his site. https://kevintipplescorner.blogspot.com/. Thank you, Kevin.

Naked in Death: Eve Dallas Mysteries is the first novel in a police procedural series that is set in
2058 according to the author’s website thought it is not actually specified in the book itself. AI is
everywhere, there are flying cars, and more. Firearms, as we know them, are banned and those
that remain are considered antiques and primarily in the possession of the wealthy people who
collect them. Despite a technology driven future, there are still murders and a need for a police
force.

As the book opens, Detective Eve Dallas awakens in her New York City apartment just a few
hours after she killed a man. The fact that she ended his life does not haunt her at all. The fact
she was unable to save the young child does. An issue she will need to hide as she goes through
testing today so that she can go back to duty.
At least that was her plan before the Commander sent her to a homicide at Twenty-Seven West
Broadway on the eighteenth floor. Testing, for now, is out the window, because she is needed on
this case and it is a high priority. Not only is she to be the main detective on the case, she is only
to report to the commander, and a tight lid is in place. Once on scene, she soon learns why all the
secrecy and the restrictions.
It isn’t every day the granddaughter of a U.S. Senator moves to New York and becomes a
licensed companion (prostitute). Sharon DeBlass was that granddaughter and she is now very
much dead in her bed. She was not stabbed or cut by a laser. Instead, she is a victim of three very
strategically placed gunshots. Those gunshots and the gun used are very much a message sent by
the killer to law enforcement and the public.
Her grandfather is Senator DeBlass of Virginia. He comes from old money and is a very vocal
champion of extreme right-wing politics. Why she was murdered and who killed the 24-year-old
woman are the most obvious questions for Lieutenant Dallas. Clearly, it was not a suicide. The
fact that her wounds were inflicted by gunshot, in this case, a .38 made many years before the
gun ban, could be a political statement of some sort. That fact as well as the fact that the killer
reported the death himself by way of video call after posing the body means this is not the work
of a random killer acting out of a rage moment. This was a deliberately planned and orchestrated
event. Lieutenant Dallas and her partner for this case, Ryan Feeney, have a bad one on their
hands.

It also will not be the last.

What follows is a complicated police procedural with a bit of romance that often becomes
graphic. The story itself is highly entertaining despite the author’s frequent pov head hops
between the characters. In some paragraphs, two or more head hops happen in the same
paragraph within a couple of sentences. That tends to be disconcerting to the reader as is the
author’s technique of constantly shifting between third person and first throughout the read. One
does tend to get used to it, after a while, but it does provide a distraction in otherwise
entertaining story.

Naked in Death: Eve Dallas Mysteries, overall, is a complicated and very entertaining police
procedural. Graphic in terms of the murders in the book as well as intimate moments between
characters, it is not for every reader. Having had the series recommended to me by Lesa Holstine
in a comment on her Faithless in Death review, who also pointed out there are fifty more books,
I have my reading work cut out for me. Challenge accepted.

My read was an eBook version provided by Barry Ergang from his personal library after he saw
my comment on Lesa Holstine’s recent review as noted above.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2021, 2023