Brotherhood in Death (In Death #42) By: J.D. Robb

Plot:

Dennis Mira just had two unpleasant surprises. First he learned that his cousin Edward was secretly meeting with a real estate agent about their late grandfather’s magnificent West Village brownstone, despite the promise they both made to keep it in the family. Then, when he went to the house to confront Edward about it, he got a blunt object to the back of the head.

Luckily Dennis is married to Charlotte Mira, the NYPSD’s top profiler and a good friend of Lieutenant Eve Dallas. When the two arrive on the scene, he explains that the last thing he saw was Edward in a chair, bruised and bloody. When he came to, his cousin was gone. With the mess cleaned up and the security disks removed, there’s nothing left behind but a few traces for forensics to analyze.

As a former lawyer, judge, and senator, Edward Mira mingled with the elite and crossed paths with criminals, making enemies on a regular basis. Like so many politicians, he also made some very close friends behind closed—and locked—doors. But a badge and a billionaire husband can get you into places others can’t go, and Eve intends to shine some light on the dirty deals and dark motives behind the disappearance of a powerful man, the family discord over a multimillion-dollar piece of real estate . . . and a new case that no one saw coming.

Review:

“Brotherhood in Death” was an enjoyable read not just because the murder was interesting and you could empathize, but because we finally got to learn more about Dennis Mira the husband to Dr. Mira. Basically, they’re Eve’s parents. There were several emotional scenes for everyone and I cried more than a couple times.

There wasn’t as much Rourke in this story but I was actually kind of glad at that, he was there when he needed to be and not too much more. Eve is great at her job she doesn’t always need him to help even though she’s almost always the one in the lead.

The negative for me was the ending. Unless there’s a huge shift in rape stats, which I find it hard to believe, Eve’s reaction to the murderers was mostly un-empathetic. If only they’d come to the police they would have been believed when they were told they dreamt of demons raping them. Are you serious Eve? Really? You? I get that what they did was wrong, very wrong, but she shouldn’t have gone down that route.

Apart from the ending I felt that “Brotherhood in Death” was a great addition to the series and I’m actually looking forward to reading the next book and here we are over forty books in, crazy.

4/5

Side Note: The majority of rapes go unreported, it’s estimated that in the US only 16% of rapes are reported to the police and only 25% of those result in a conviction. Roughly 5% of rapists will spend time in jail. 1 out of every 6 women, 1 out of every 33 men are victims of an attempted or completed rape.