Leafing Through Pages – Thankless in Death (In Death #37)

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Stars: 4 / 5

Recommendation:  A futuristic urban fantasy mystery thriller throwing the readers into a world that they understand as well as can envision what it would be like; and at the same time keeping it grounded to the world they know so they get hooked. Eve finds the killer, a very whiny one, of the double murder he commits. At the same time she and Roarke host Roarke’s Irish family and their friends for thanksgiving making it a complete family event combined with her job. Another enjoyable story with a mix of gory and family in the plot.

Thankless in Death is the thirty seventh book in the long running In Death Series by J. D. Robb, the alter ego of the famous American romance novelist Nora Roberts. We continue to pursue Lieutenant Eve Dallas juggling her role as a Homicide Lieutenant and also being a wife to the Irish Billionaire Roarke. This was published in September of 2013.

The stories in the In Death Series are set in mid-21st century New York City, New York in United States, featuring NYPSD (New York Police and Security Department) Lieutenant Eve Dallas and her husband Roarke, an Irish billionaire, CEO of Roarke Industries, and one of the richest man in the world. First started in 1995, as of May 2025, 60 books have been written in this series. The first book begins in the year 2058 and showcases that technology completely dominates the world, yet Robb has her main characters still believe in human impulses, passion and emotions that are key to solving every single case she comes across or in her relationships with her husband and people. They complete their two years of marriage in Indulgence in Death (#31).

We are in November of 2060  – a good 65 years ahead for when the series began in 1995 –  And Lieutenant Eve Dallas deals with a killer who found his purpose of murder, starting with his parents, and at the same time she faces Roarke’s family. Even though she likes them, she has to face them for Thanksgiving as promised.

Roarke’s family comes for a visit, just like he mentioned in Indulgence in Death (In Death #31) where he invites Sinead and her brood to spend with them for Thanksgiving in NYC. We see them coming to NYC in this book.  We also see a hoard of people from Roarke’s family that we saw in previous books.

Richard DeBlass, Elizabeth DeBlass and Nixie are also visiting them. The Deblasses first appear in the very first book Naked in Death (In Death #1). This is the book Eve meets Roarke as well. Nixie in Survivor in Death (In Death #20).

Lieutenant Eve Dallas is awarded Medal of Honor for catching the killers in Delusion in Death (In Death #35) in this book. And Roarke is awarded Medal of Merit – Civilian, for his part in that case.. She is also offered captaincy by her Commander Whitney, but she rejects in this book.

This particular tale is a columbo-style where we know the killer and why he killed. But what we don’t know is where he kills next. That is where Eve is stumped at first until she zeroes in on the next kill the killer has in sight.

Reference to Red Horse and the killers she unearths in Delusion in death (In Death #35) is mentioned by Eve and Roarke in a conversation. I like that Robb bring bits and pieces from past cases into her current book. It’s not always Icove case from Origin in Death (In Death #21) is not all the Eve works on.

We see Kevin whom we first saw in Vengeance in Death (In Death #6) and Jamie Lingstrom who first appeared in Ceremony in Death (In Death #5) during Eve and Roarke medal ceremony, much to Eve’s surprise.

The antagonist  was very whiny, entitled, lazy baby who made me feel  so much rage within me, and a little bit sick too, when reading his thought processes. It appalled me at the way he justifies his killings.

Eve Dallas mixes her proverbs, sayings etc when she speaks like Dog eats Cats instead of Dog eats Dog. She reminds me very much of Ziva David from NCIS, played by Cote de Pablo, who is a trained with Mossad and an Israeli, naturally Ziva speaks differently. Although she started to develop some people skills.

Robb continues to show us futuristic world in the various concepts and technology that may have been unimaginable in 1995, but are much more acceptable and some available now in 2025. And perhaps in a few years we might see more of her imagination in the series come to life. Check the Spoiler Alerts below for some of them that I identified and grouped them.

Incidentally most of the futuristic world and technology innovations that the book gives the reader, Robb had mentioned them to have begun since 2023. When this series  started 1995, 2025 was 30 years ahead. However, I have started reading them in 2023 so for me some of the concepts seem very real or close to real for the way our world is heading to.

A futuristic urban fantasy mystery thriller throwing the readers into a world that they understand as well as can envision what it would be like; and at the same time keeping it grounded to the world they know so they get hooked. Eve finds the killer, a very whiny one, of the double murder he commits. At the same time she and Roarke host Roarke’s Irish family and their friends for thanksgiving making it a complete family event combined with her job. Another enjoyable story with a mix of gory and family in the plot.

Spoiler Alerts:

Grammatical / Character / Plot / Geographical / Historical / Mythological Errors:

On Pg. 11, Line 15, it should be “…blast of horns….”

On Pg. 156, Line 2 from bottom, we see an extra opening quote.

On Pg. 156, Line 12 from bottom, it should be either “her” or “his” in the line.

On Pg. 209, Line 5 from bottom, it is missing an opening quote in the sentence.

Plot Reveals:

Peabody and her family has a tradition where they write down the things that they are grateful for, put them in bowl, and on Thanksgiving Day everyone would pick a few. The idea of it is to appreciate the people and the things you are grateful for. Unfortunately Peabody and McNab are not traveling this year for Thanksgiving.

Roarke gives a contact’s name to Juana Printz, who loses her current job. Roarke helps with his contact.

Futuristic technology and concepts for the time the book is set in (2058) which Robb imagined in 1995:

For Security and Tools: Police Sensors and Porta-sensors, Sensor Bugs; Seal It for hands and feet; laser weapons with ability to adjust it’s power making it deadly yet less messier than a gun; Compuguard, a software to detect unregistered and illegal equipment; Force Fields; Anti-mugging Spray; Detox Bowls and Radiant Heats; Space Traffic Control who control interplanetary traffic; Identi-Pad for a forensic sketch artist

Buildings and Landmarks / Travel: Multihabitation Buildings; Graves for loved ones is for rich; Flash Transport for interplanetary travel; EZ Tram and other airstreams, air transport service; medi-copters and ambu-jets; Traffic Hovercraft controlling air traffic; Land, Sea and Sky traffic; Rapid Cabs;

Electronics and gadgets: Body Driers / Drying Tubes; Automatic and voice controlled electronics; AutoChef, vending machine dispensing fresh food on order; Droids / Drones / all Robots of all kinds even pets; Anitron – like robots that are animated; Virtual Reality headphones; Moving Maps, People Glides and Glide-Carts; Portable Palm Computers (PPCs); Laser-faxes, holograms, holo-rooms, holocards and holographs; send-receive units and tele-links; Anti-Gravity gear for off-planer travel – gravity boots; Rain Shields; SCAN-EYE; Mood Screens; scan-cams; viewing discs; Privacy Screens on windows; Elevators that go up and across; music on Sound Sticks; A hollow standing scanner to scan a person’s body internal and external; memo cubes for leaving voice memos; Videos or films are Vids;

Money, Food, Sports and Health Related: Real food like coffee and meat is premium due to depletion of rain forests; twenty four hour facial cosmetics that won’t smudge; Soda and Beer come in recyclable tubes; Rehydrated food such as irradiated powdered eggs or soy burgers; Medicines such as Sober-Up for being sober after a drunk night, Alert All to keep one alert and bright, Stay-Up to stay awake; Suturing Wand that would mend ripped flesh without any trace left; Cash is called credits and more like coins; human organs synthetically manufactured; anticancer vaccines; surgical freeze-coat to stop the flow of blood; Arena Ball Game; skins casts; for quick way to move thru the streets – airskates, zip bikes, city scoots;

Global incidents that changed the course of the world to what Robb imagined – Population Adjustment Theory (Two Parents one Child); The Revisited Period (a new period for artists post whatever wars the world went thru); Genetic Engineering and in Vitro repairs; Urban Wars; Gun Ban introduced in 2022-2023; Depletion of Rain Forests.

Sub Plots:

Law Enforcement: Commander Jack Whitney, Eve’s commanding officer, and his wife Anna, daughter Linda, son Steven; Chief Harrison Tibble, Chief of NYPSD, and his wife Karla Blaze; Prosecuting Attorney / Assistant PA’s- Jonathan Heartly, Carla Rollins, Cher Reo; Adam Quincy, Chief Legal Counsel for NYPSD; Lab Staff – Chief Tech Dickie Berenski aka Dickhead (dating and in love with someone he met a few weeks ago but gets dumped in Chaos In Death), Harpo, Birdman; ME’s Office – Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Li Morris, Carver, Ty Clipper, Duluc, Foster, Marlie Drew; Medics: Carver; Morgue Staff – Chambers, Rochinsky, Herbert Fienstein, Feeno, Harvo; Lieutenants and Captains – Schumer; Captain Jonah MacMasters, Delong, Don Webster IAB (dating Darcia Angelo as of Treachery in Death), Medavoy from anti-crime, Desevres at one six-two, Marks, Hayes on 128 Precinct, Jaye Smith from Missing Persons Unit (MPU); FBI Special Agent Karen Stowe; FBI Assistant Director Sooner;  Interplanetary Law Enforcement (ILE);  Darcia Angelo, Chief of Olympus Police; Mayor Steven Peachtree; Sweepers – Lobar, Beaver, Tweeser (head sweeper); Detectives – Franks, Nickson, Strong from Illegals, McGreedy, Janburry, Delfino, Jacobson, Santiago, Manson from Special Victims, Moynahan, Reineke, Sisto, Melodie Reedway, Letterman, Renicki, Callender, Crouch, Marion Burns, Brinkleman with 4-1, Darlymple, David Baxter, Cartwright, Zeno, Yancy Ident-artist, Briscoll, Ute, Janson, Jules, Jenkinson, Slader, Carmichael, Sherry in Illegals; Officers – Stanski, Rhodes, Murray, Kenson, Ferris, Cardininni, Friendly, Turney, Franks, Riley, Bingly,  Slovic, Carmichael, Milway, Uttica, Kobel, Guilder, Laney, Jonas, McKlinton, Oritz, Klink, Harris, Darnell, Powell, Newkirk, Carter, Miller, Frohickie, Troy Trueheart and his mother Pauline (he is being trained by Baxter, dating Casey in Records), Clark, Rinsky, Briggs, Lopkre, Beth Ricky, Nalley, Queeks, Grimes, Ivansky, Bilkey, Bennington; Tomjohn Lewis from Maintenance; Media Liaisons –  Lee Chang, Kyung Beaverton; CSI team – Kurtz, Chief of CSI, Petrie; SWAT Team – Detective Lowenbaum; Sergeants – Gonzales at 1-3-6;

Close friends and family of Eve and her husband Roarke: Lawrence Charles Summerset, Roarke’s valet and butler; Mavis Freestone, Eve’s friend and her husband Leonardo (Fashion designer), daughter Bella Eve (they marry in Born in Death (#23)); Galahad, their cat; Detective Third Grade Delia Peabody, partner to Eve as of Imitation in Death (#17) (has two brothers – Zeke and another one -?? and a sister; mother Phoebe and father Sam); Captain Ryan Feeney, Eve’s ex-partner and head of Electronics Detectives Division (EDD) and his wife Sheila; Dr. Charlotte “Charley” Mira, behavioral psychiatrist & her husband Dennis has a Wiccan daughter Gillian with three kids (Lana, ???) and a husband, Callie and Bryce (???), son Anthony & his wife Deborah with a child Matthew James Mira; Nadine Furst, Channel 75’s reporter; Detective Ian McNab, from EDD, cohabbing with Peabody since Survivor in Death (#20), asked her to marry in Celebrity in Death (#34), has a cousin Sheila; Charles Monroe, retired LC and a sex therapist, and his wife Dr. Louise Anne Dimatto, doctor at the Canal Street Clinic, manages Dochas; Jamie Lingstrom from Ceremony in Death and Feeney’s God child; Trina, hair stylist.

Other characters frequently appear: Roarke’s family – dead father Patrick Michael Roarke, dead mother Siobahn Margaret Mary Brody, step-mother Meg; Eve’s family – dead father Richard Troy “Rick” and dead mother Stella; Siobhan’s family – father Colin Brody and mother Patricia Carney Brody or Alise Brody, son Eemon and his wife Reenie with a kid Cassie, brothers Edward “Ned” married to Mary Katherine with four children (Connor,?,?,?) and Fergus married to Meghan, Sinead and her husband Robbie with three children, puppy named Mac, eldest son Seamus and their son Sean, Connor married to Maggie, kid Devin, kid Fiona, Uncle Paddy, Aunt Maureen, 7-weeks old Keenla; Roarke’s staff – Caro and her daughter Reva Ewing, Yoshi Tokimoto in love with Reva, LaSalle, Ariel, Loreen; Larinda Mars, Channel 75’s reporter for Social Information; Wilson Buckley aka Crack, a street dealer and runs the Down and Dirty Club; Biff, a fabric expert; Dr. Engrave, leader in horticulture; Dr. Ambrose, at Midtown Rehabilitation Center; Dr. Ward, on the Olympus Resort; Spirit Quest owners – Isis Paige and Charles “Chas” Forte; Cassandra, a palmist; Kevin, an abused 6-yr child, along with his cat Dopey get adopted by Richard DeBlass and Elizabeth Barrister from Naked In Death (#1), he has a dog named Butch, they adopt Nixie Swisher in Survivor in Death (#20); Carmine, owner of Gametown; Ratso, a weasel; Rue McLean, manager at Purgatory; Milo Horndecker; Dr. Stiles, works for Allegany; Physician’s Assistant Spence; Moira O’Bannion, head crisis counsellor of Dochas; Dirk Hastings, an image artist / photographer; Brian Kelly, Roarke’s childhood friend; Quinton Post, a reporter; Sade Tully, receptionist at the law offices of Dave and Grant, mother in service still as City Beat Sergeant in Trenton; Tandy Willowby and Aaron Applebee, have a son names Quentin Dallas Applebee.

Off planet locations: Silas I; Silas Three; Taurus I – Alpha Colony; Taurus II; Taurus Three; Taurus Five; Refini; Arts Colony on Mars; Penal Station Omega; FreeStar One; Star 50; Stellar Five; Starlight Station; Eden Colony; Vegas II; Terra Colony; Olympus Resort, owned by Roarke, completed in Interlude in Death (#12.5); Regis III; Regis Six; NASA Two; Space Station Delta; Travis II; Attica Two; Station Utopia; Rembrandt Station; Alfa Six; Planet Disney; Optima II; Nexus Station; Rexal facility for Mental Defectives; Flora; Green One

Roarke’s gifts to Eve can be seen here.

Someone is stealing candy bars from Eve’s desk at Cop Central. Wonder who that is?

Will Summerset and Eve call truce to their animosity and get at least form a sort of bond enough to reduce their bickering?

Eve’s ongoing fight with Vending Machines continue. I don’t get why she has so much aversion to them and have no patience while they spew out benefits of the food of choice the user does. Same goes with her aversion to shopping. Never understood it.

Miranda rights are revised in this series. We don’t get to see the actual revision though.

From Immortal in Death #3: A new sect – Members of the Pure Sect – devotional and similar to monks.

From Conspiracy in Death #8:

Hans Vandervahen, one of the accused, is never caught at the end of the book.

Wilson McRae, an ex-detective with CPSD in Chicago, has a wife who is very pregnant with their second child, and a 5-yr old son, Will. Will he come back in future books?

From Judgement in Death #11: Max Edward Ricker, Roarke’s archenemy, vows revenge against Roarke and Eve. He is mentioned in Divided in Death (#18). He makes an appearance in Promises in Death (#28)

From Betrayal in Death #12:

Dominick J. Naples and his son Dominick II escape at the end of the book.

FBI Special Agent Karen Stowe mentions that she owes Eve a favor on account Eve handing her collar to him.

From Seduction in Death #13: Detective Matthew Renfrew from one-twenty-eight precinct has issues with Eve as she unravels of conspiracy and fraud at his station in Judgement in Death (#11).

From Reunion in Death #14: As fun joke, Roarke names their fictional kids as Carlos Junior, Robbie, Anna and Alice. If ever they have kids, does Robb have them naming any one of these?

From Portrait in Death #16: Patrick Roarke was killed by Summerset which Roarke was never aware of.

From Imitation in Death #17:

Eve muses about VR for pets and thinks Roarke might jump at that idea.

Marlene Cox, a survivor of a brutal attack by the serial killer, and her family could be part of a future book.

From Remember When (#17.25): Will the Gannons (Max, Laine, Samantha) show up in any of the future books?

From Divided in Death (#18): Eve and Roarke’s fathers knew each other when Eve was 8 and Roarke was perhaps 11 or 12 yrs old. In Portrait in Death (#16) it is revealed that Roarke was a whole year younger than what he was led to believe.

From Survivor in Death (#20): Several political reasons hinder Eve’s promotion as a Captain per Whitney in this book. However Eve is also not ready to ride a desk yet.

From Origin in Death (#21):

The fate of Avril Icove and her sisters, and Diana Rodriguez and her sisters is left open giving hope that they might surface again somewhere in the future.

In Portrait in Death (#16), Siobhan and Sinead’s mother was called Patricia Carney Brody, but in Fantasy in death (#30) she is called Alise Brody. Which is it?

From Born in Death (#23): Summerset gives his dead wife’s ring to Leonardo to put in on Mavis when they get married in the hospital. Will they give it back and she gets her own ring?

From Strangers in Death (#26): Eve meets a kid named Tiko and meets his Granny in the process of dismantling a wrong business

From Indulgence in Death (#31)

Eve and Peabody joke about tracking a Lion through midtown. Will there be a book on this in future?

Will Officer Carmicheal and Detective Carmichael change their last names, in a future book, as mused by Eve.

From Secrets in Death # 45:

Garnet has a daughter Miranda; shows interest in Morris.

Nadine is looking for an admin; Eve has someone in her mind. A past character surfaces perhaps!