In Death Series by J.D. Robb

Crime and punishment is Lieutenant Eve Dallas's business. Murder her speciality...Named by the social worker who found her when she was a mere child roaming that city's streets, Eve Dallas is a New York police detective who lives for her job. In over ten years on the force, she's seen it all - and knows her survival depends on her instincts.

The perfect holiday read, all six of them. It's not the whole series, there are loads more books ... those are just the first six and more specifically, the ones I managed to get thru while at our holiday house over Christmas.

1. Naked in Death
2. Glory in Death
3. Immortal in Death
4. Rapture in Death
5. Ceremony in Death
6. Vengeance in Death

It took me a little while to get into the first one, purely because they are set in 2058. I thought this was an extra little detail that was really unnecessary and just served to make the writer's life harder. But I got into it and was certainly quite enjoying some of the ideas she had for the future :) And as Peeb's boyf Button said, she's cornering 3 genres at least.

1) She's got the Sci-Fi angle covered by writing 50 years in the future
2) There's the obvious Crime and Mystery angle since her lead character is a homicide detective and well, she solves murders.
3) There's an interesting bodice-ripper angle to it after Eve get's involved with Roarke in the first book ... there are some fairly lengthy and detailed scenes that would be out of place ordinarily.

So yes, as I said, an ideal book for lazing on the beach ... nothing too deep and meaningful and certainly no twists you didn't see coming :)

Oh, and by the way in case you're wondering, J.D. Robb is a pseudonym for Nora Roberts

Memory in Death (the 22nd book in the series) was reviewed on 28 August 2007 by akika. Read her review here.

Buy this book online at Amazon, Amazon UK, Kalahari or Loot

Eternal by Craig Russell

'We are eternal'. 'The Buddhists believe that each life, each consciousness, is like a single candle flame, but that there is a continuity between each flame. Imagine lighting one candle with the flame of another, then using that flame to light the next, and that to light the next, and on and on forever. A thousand flames, all passed from one to another across the generations. Each is a different light, each burns in a totally different way. But it is, nevertheless, the same flame'. 'Now, I'm afraid, it is time for me to extinguish your flame. But don't worry... the pain I give you will mean you will burn brightest at the end.' An environmental campaigner and former left-wing radical is murdered, his body scalped. When a second scalped murder victim, a geneticist researching the possibility of inherited memory, is found, the media latch on to a new serial killer. Jan Fabel and his murder team have nothing to go on other than a single red hair left as a signature at each scene, each hair cut from the same head, at least twenty years previously.;Connections begin to appear: a long disbanded terrorist group and its infamous leader; a mummified body over 1500 years old; and a killer who believes he has been reincarnated to exact a terrible revenge on those who betrayed him in a previous life.

This was the second of Craig Russell's books I've read and although the storyline is generally good, I just don't find them an easy read. This one was particularly slow and I'm not sure if it's because it's Germany-based as opposed to the usual British or American based novels we all generally read. Either way this one had a fantastic surprise ending that at the very least kept me gripped for the last few pages.

Craig Russell also takes care to make his characters 3 dimensional, they all have little sub-plots going, if not things in their life at least things in their psyche that affect who they are and the decisions they make thruout the story. Not a bad read, I'd read another of his books, but it's not earth shatteringly go-out-and-tell-all-your-friends brilliant either.

Buy this book online at Amazon UK, Kalahari or Loot

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling

This book was originally reviewed on 23 August 2007 by Jarred. Read both reviews here.

The Knife Man by Wendy Moore

This book was originally reviewed on 12 September 2007 by akika. Read both reviews here.