This is an enjoyable return to form for J.D. Robb, whose Eve Dallas series numbers over 25 books now.
The last few have been rather tired and showed the limitations of a long-running series, but Strangers in Death is a definite improvement with an interesting mystery, more natural-seeming reactions between characters, and not too many references to events in previous books
that might confuse newcomers to the series.
In this story, Eve is called to the scene of an apparent accidental death during some sex play. The widow of Thomas Anders was away in St. Lucia with two friends, and there is great humiliation for her in the way her husband
has been found, especially as everyone believed that they had a great marriage and were faithful to each other. As Eve Dallas and Delia Peabody begin to investigate, looking at Thomas Anders' nephew among other people, they discover that one of the people around Anders is a good actor who has been playing a part for many years in order to
be set up for money and power.
As usual, Eve makes some impressive leaps of imagination which get her on the right track; also, as usual, she's rarely wrong,
and Roarke has superhuman abilities with computers and money and seems to be able to take time off from his own work at the drop of a hat. Still, the mystery in this story
is well-constructed, the characterization unveiled effectively, and the resolution works well. There
isn't any great soul-searching or moralizing here as there have been in other
Robb novels. This is more of a straight murder-mystery tale than a deep delving into the marriage of Eve and Roarke; for me, that makes it a better and more enjoyable book. Eve Dallas fans will no doubt love this contribution to the series, and it
proves that there is still some mileage in this series.