Seduction in Death (In Death)

"Dante had been courting his victim in cyberspace for weeks before meeting her in person. A few sips of wine and a few hours later, she was dead. The murder weapon: a rare, usually undetectable date-rape drug with a street value of a quarter million dollars. Detective Eve Dallas is playing and replaying the clues in her mind. The candlelight, the music, the rose petals strewn across the bed-a seduction meant for his benefit, not hers. He hadn't intended to kill her. But now that he had, he is left with only two choices: to either hole up in fear and guilt. Or start hunting again."

Eve Dallas seeks a killer who uses a poetry chat room to lure victims drawn to his facade of the "perfect man."

New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts, writing as J.D. Robb, continues her prolific string of hits with her latest installment in the In Death series of futuristic thrillers starring hard-boiled detective Eve Dallas and a quirky cast of characters, including Eve's husband, Roarke, who owns most of Manhattan and can be relied upon to bring all his considerable resources to bear to help his wife solve the case whether she wants him to or not, and Peabody, Eve's uptight assistant, who has an off-again, on-again thing going with the irreverent Officer McNab. This time Eve is on the trail of a serial killer--or maybe killers--who stalks young women looking for love in online poetry chat rooms. Once a romantic date has been arranged, the murderer sets the scene with roses, champagne, and candlelight, then serves his unsuspecting victims a lethal combination of date-rape drugs that takes them to the height of pleasure and too far beyond. But this killer is really clever, altering his look to become each victim's dream date. What a nightmare! Detective Dallas is on the case, chasing an anonymous psychopath with a twisted taste in romance. But Eve seems a little more fragile this time around, still plagued by the nightmare of childhood abuse. Is retirement from the business of crime solving in the near future for Detective Dallas? Robb has found a winning formula in the genre, so hopefully we'll see a lot more of peppery Eve Dallas. --Alison Trinkle