Robb, J.D.: (16) Portrait in Death

I drop everything when a new J.D. Robb novel comes out, so I finished Portrait in Death next after Feet of Clay. This came out after Boskone, and I was vastly amused to see that a number of comments people had made at the J.D. Robb panel were addressed here. In particular, Roarke gets pretty thoroughly knocked off balance in this one, which was well overdue, in many people’s opinions (including mine).

My only real complaint about this one is that the brief sections from the killer’s point of view aren’t necessary; not only that, but I think they’re a touch misleading. I don’t know if it’s part of the genre that I’m not otherwise aware of, or something that Robb/Roberts just likes to do, but she seems to have the killer POV snippets in almost every book where there is a killer. I don’t see that it adds a whole lot, frankly.

Overall, this was an unusually solid entry in the series. Say what I will about some of Robb/Roberts’ craft details, she definitely has the storytelling instinct.

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