Passions in Death: An Eve Dallas Novel (In Death, 59)

“This is a case with haunting memories for Eve Dallas, for in another life, she could have been the victim.”

It should have been the “Wedding March” for Erin Albright and Shauna Hunnicutt but instead it’s a funeral dirge as the brides’ bachelorette party at “Crack” Buckley’s place, the Down and Dirty, ends with Erin being murdered.

“The big man himself strode across the room, straight to Eve. He didn’t look shocked, bored, or weepy. He looked furious. ‘Someone killed that girl in my place. You find who killed that girl. I knew that girl.’”

Lying beside Erin is a case with her surprise for Shauna inside—two tickets to Maui and the pink butterfly shoes she bought the day they met. Erin’s jewelry is missing but it doesn’t take long to see that this is no robbery gone bad.

Someone hated Erin enough to murder her on the eve of her wedding and the place of her death has a special meaning for police Lt. Eve Dallas. It’s the same room where a former enemy tried to kill her on the night before her own wedding to Roarke.

That fact brings back disturbing memories as well as more determination to solve Erin’s murder.

It seems some of their friends—among them several ex-lovers and former friends with benefits—didn’t want the two to get married; a couple are very vocal, one stating Shauna was merely a passing fling for Erin and she would tire of her soon and toss her aside as soon as the wedding newness wore off, while the other thinks that Shauna, who had previously only dated men, is simply exploring the novelty of dating a woman.

In that case, Eve muses, why kill Erin? Why not kill Shauna instead?

“. . . Erin needed to die—the only clear way to stop the wedding, the mistake, the deviation. But Shauna had to be punished, too, had to suffer some consequences for her choices, for tainting what they’d been to each other, what they had together.”

This is a case with haunting memories for Eve Dallas, for in another life, she could have been the victim. Prompted by those memories, she’s more determined to bring justice to Erin Albright, and to Shauna as well.

As usual, there’s an intriguing murder with plenty of suspects, gradually boiled down to a few; yet to some readers, something may seem to be lacking. Though it’s difficult to put a finger on what that something is except to say that a certain spark is lacking. The usual cast of characters are in attendance, and the reader is brought up to date on their activities but other than a short appearance, there seems to be a singular lack of their participation in this story. Eve’s long-running feud with Summerset is given only a few short sentences instead of their usual pithy give-and-take. Even Roarke seems a bit lackluster except for two scenes between him and Eve, especially one lasting several pages, that are both lovely, domestic, and particularly humanizing, and offer some great insight into both characters.

“She ate a fry made from an actual potato as she studied that incredible face again. ‘If I’d gone for somebody else, would you have killed me?’

Brow lifted, he picked up his wine. ‘Now, there’s a sharp turn.’ He looked over at her board. ‘No. I might have bought up the world’s supply of coffee then convinced you of your mistake. Or, alternately found a way to . . .  disqualify my rival.’

‘Disqualify?’

‘One way or the other, sort of murder,” he added. ‘You being a murder cop would have discouraged me on that tactic.’”

Eve’s summation of their relationship says in three sentences why readers like this fictional couple so much.

“‘It’s nice being married,’ she said. ‘I didn’t know if it could work with us, didn’t see how it could. But here we are, and it’s nice being married.’”

It’s also nice reading how Dallas solves this case.

Read the book. Enjoy. Wait for the next.