In Death Makes a Quantum Leap

To quote myself, “So, back around the turn of the year, several of our contributors here at Speculative Chic made New Year’s Resolutions, committing to movies or books or authors that, at some point, they’d given short shrift, or moments in pop culture that had passed them by. At the time, I was at a loss for my own resolution.

But that was because I forgot about In Death!”

For those of you keeping score at home, I just finished Rapture in Death and am about to start Ceremony in Death, books four and five in J.D. Robb’s In Death series. And as I mentioned in my initial post, I planned to discuss the series every ten titles. That, or whenever a book deviated enough to merit individual attention. Rapture in Death was one of those books.

No spoilers

Before we begin, here’s a helpful link to a list of all of the In Death books and novellas in chronological order from “Fall Into the Story,” the official blog for Nora Roberts and JD Robb readers.

The first three books in the series—Naked in Death, Glory in Death, Immortal in Death—are all set in the late 2050s. (The first time a date is mentioned, I believe it’s some time in 2058.) So it’s in the future, but all of the references to anything sci-fi-ish are folded into the storytelling, mostly mentioned in passing. There are flying cars, tobacco-less cigarettes, the cops carry stunners instead of guns…but these are mostly on the periphery. It isn’t until book four, Rapture in Death, that technology comes to the fore (see what I did there?) front of the narrative.

Rapture in Death—hereafter referred to as Rapture—begins with Eve and Roarke off-planet, in a high-end hotel/resort that Roarke is in the process of developing. Because of this, they mostly have the place to themselves, and they take great advantage of this, having all the sex.

Side note: There is a lot of sex in these books. Hot, explicit sex. There is also a lot of romance and feelings. That said, I wouldn’t categorize this series as romantic suspense. I edited romance for years, and for me, romance stories need an aspect of tension in the romance itself. Will the hero and heroine find a way to be together at the end of the book? While there are times that Eve’s life is on the line, there’s never any question in my mind of whether or not Eve and Roarke will remain together.

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Anyway, Eve and Roarke are off on their sex-cation when a developer at the resort winds up dead, seemingly at his own hands. But there’s something hinky about the death—the guy didn’t seem depressed or in any way inclined toward suicide, and when another person ends up dead, another person disinclined toward self-termination, Eve knows she’s on to something. She just needs to convince the brass that these are murders, not suicides, and in doing so, she delves into the world of virtual reality.

So we have space travel and mind-controlling VR devices, and they work by… well, they work by what TVTropes.org calls “applied phlebotinum” or “handwavium.” The space travel happens off-screen, in a vessel that, on the inside, appears to resemble a private jet, and while Robb makes an effort to explain why the VR devices work, the “how” is left quite vague. Same with Eve’s flying car, and its ability to fly. How does that happen? She pushes a button.

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Which, frankly, works just fine for me. Look, I grew up on Star Trek, and I’m willing to swallow plenty of technobabble, as long as it sounds good. Plus, Eve is a police detective with a minimal interest in technology, so the lack of in-depth explanation makes sense. She doesn’t care, so we don’t have to, either. Eve cares more about humanity and motives, and Robb poses some interesting questions in Rapture, ones regarding nature vs. nurture, and Eve spends more time pondering those than the inner workings of her car. And yet, I would continue to place this under the spec fic umbrella, because Robb is forward-looking and forward-thinking, somewhat in her world building, but mostly in her character construction.

Roarke is a swoon-worthy alpha/beta hero hybrid, and Eve is…complicated. And I mean that in the best possible way. Robb hasn’t simply crafted a male hero with boobs; she’s taken the time to give Eve layers and depth, and as an author, she never shies away from Eve’s femaleness. (I would say “feminity,” but I’m afraid that word has negative connotations that I’m trying to avoid here.) Eve is repeatedly referred to as the best detective on the force, yet she’s willing to slip on a dress and be Roarke’s wife for the night, if that’s what the situation requires. She shies away from her feels, especially as they pertain to her dark past, but she doesn’t drown them in drink or drugs or fighting. Oh, she’ll throw a punch in a heartbeat; she’s just not the sort to go trolling for a fight. At the end of the day, she’s one of the most well-rounded detective characters I’ve seen on the page, and I’m saying this as someone who’s read more than her fair share of mysteries and thrillers.

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Here’s the thing. If you’re looking for hard sci-fi, you won’t find it in this series. But if you’re looking for stories about an excellent detective with a troubled past learning how to let her lover and her (mostly female) friends and mentee get closer and it just happens to be set in the future, then these are the books for you! Oh, and as I mentioned, you have to be okay with a small amount of explicit language and sex scenes in your thrillers.

So. Much. Sex.