Mary Kate Covino wakes up in shackles in a dark room, abducted by a man who half the time seems rational, meticulous, and devious. The other half the time, he is a spoiled, angry child who wants her to be his Mommy. Once Eve Dallas and her team find a dead woman in a local park in make up and clothes not her own with a sign written in crayon that says, "bad mommy," it is determined that there are at least two other women being held against their will, one of whom is Mary Kate Covino, and the race is on - find the abductor before he kills again. All the while, Eve is being bombarded with details involving the house that Mavis and Leonardo are renovating along with Peabody and McNabb.

Abandoned in Death is another enjoyable entry in the In Death series. The procedural elements in this book are outstanding and make for a fascinating ride as the evidence and clues are introduced with exceptional pacing. Humor is injected at several points in the story that include some laugh out loud moments as Eve's down to earth style contrasts with those of almost everyone around her. The only downfall of this book is the lack of personal connection to the case, despite the story line involving Mavis and Leonardo's house. Overall, Abandoned in Death is not the best book in the series but still a solid entry. ( )

There is a serial killer working that remakes his victims into what they label as a bad mommy. The clothes and makeup are dated so Eve and her team work with Mira to find someone that have the ultimate in mother issues. There is a lot of flashbacks in the book to tell the story of the original bad mommy as the story progresses that flesh out what drove the killer to do it. A tight story as usual from JD Robb and I can’t wait for the next one.

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss ( )

OMG I just love JD Robb and the Eve Dallas books. I have missed reading this one and just read it. To think a person can work right along another especially in the police department and turn out to be the killer/abductor you are searching for is crazy. Sad that innocent woman had t0 die because he wanted to punish his mother for abandoning him at such a young age. Yet to wait until you are in your 60's to start getting your revenge, that's just weird. I can't wait to read the next one. ( )

I've been a fan of In Death for many years. I love the blend of character relationships with a nice mystery. Sadly, I felt that the last couple installments had very weak mysteries; read and done in a couple hours. Abandoned changes that, but at the expense of the relationships.

The book kickstarts with a young addict abandoning her toddler before taking an overdose of pills. We then jump to The Body. The book focuses almost exclusively on the investigation from there on, mostly via Dallas & Peabody, with a lot of flashbacks to the killer's past or the pending victims. There are a few mentions of Mavis' new house, but there's very little interaction among all the principals. While I felt that lack keenly, the improved mystery was a welcome change and the killer was surprising.

I enjoyed it, but hope the next one gets back to better balancing the relationships and the investigation. ( )

If you are 54 books into a series (and that counts only the novels; there are also at least 11 novellas) and you are still reading the new books as soon as they are out, you either like the series or you are paid to do it. As I am not paid to read anything (I wish...), I really don't need to mention that I like the series.

One morning a body is found on a bench, holding a scrawled message "Bad Mommy" - a woman who seems to have fallen off time and landed in the future - everything about her is old-fashioned - her clothes, her hair. Except she is not - until a few days earlier she was just a normal modern woman - before disappearing. The reader actually knows a lot more that Eve at that point because we get not only the chapters from the perspective of the killer but also parts of chapters showing the past which led him to the current state.

Before long the book turns into the usual cat and mouse game - Eve is sure there are other women being abducted and about to die so the team works non-stop to try to stop the killer. A few red herrings later and the killer ends up being a surprising one (it was about time for this kind of a twist in the series but it still was surprising).

The novel won't win any awards in any of its genres but it is a decent entry into the series. Not sure if it can work as a standalone (the author stopped doing heavy introductions of her characters awhile back so they can look almost cardboard-y without the backstory). And I tend to overlook and forgive things in long running series - the backstory carries a lot of weight.

Note on timing - Eve and Roarke are about to celebrate their 3rd anniversary - which means that the 54 novels fit in 3 years (2058-2061). As all of them are dated somewhere in the books, that is not hard to work out if one tries to but still... this series can continue forever with this speed. Not that I mind. ( )