Leafing Through Pages – Festive in Death (In Death #39)

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Stars: 3 / 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. A murder victim that Eve hates, but she stands for them no matter what and to top it she has to the shopping for Christmas to all her family and friends along with hosting their annual bash. 

Festive in Death is the thirty ninth 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 2014.

The stories in the In Death Series are set in mid-21st century New York City, New York in United States, featuring NYPSD 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 September 2025, 61 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 December of 2060  – a good 65 years ahead for when the series began in 1995 – and Lieutenant Dallas deal with a case that brings her hair stylist Trina in forefront. She is dealing the murder of a gym rat, who is an ex of Trina’s friend, and a very despicable man. She does not like him, but he belongs to her now like all the rest of the dead people she had solved so far. In the midst she had to do Holiday shopping for her friends whom they invite to Roarke’s holiday bash at their home.

A year before the victim wins a trophy for being Personal Trainer of the Year, 2059. He is killed by that now. Eve meets with Tiko again that we meet him in Strangers in Death (In Death #26), during her shopping jaunt the she rarely does. She also gives her opinion on An Didean that Roarke is beginning to build in the same building he had found 12 bodies in Concealed in Death (In Death #38).

We hear about Mr. Ursa who maintains a jewelry store where Roarke and Eve both buy there. We first met him in Thankless in Death (In Death #37).

We also see that Roarke has given a gift to Eve, a class with Master Wu, who first appeared in Survivor in Death (In Death #20)

I wanted kill the victim myself, he is so despicable. He gets killed and Eve finds the killer, but she is not short of suspects, because everyone wanted to kill him. It felt a little over the top that she investigates him despite she finds that he is despised. But again, it shows that she stands for the one that gets killed no matter what her personal feelings are towards him.

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.

She also talks about various sayings and questions them as to why people say so. Fr Ex..it amuses her that people say “three’s a crowd” and she doesn’t think so. It also makes us think of her musings, like “you save money for rainy days” and she thinks why only we save for rainy days and not dry days.

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. A murder victim that Eve hates, but she stands for them no matter what and to top it she has to the shopping for Christmas to all her family and friends along with hosting their annual bash.

Spoiler Alerts:

Plot Reveals:

McNab and Peabody save enough money to give to Roarke for investing.

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

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 way3 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 33period 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:

NYPSD (New York Police and Security Department) 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 Richard “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, Dawson (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 – Kenesko; Shelby; O’Ryan; Cho, 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; Forensic Anthropologists – Elsie Kendrick (one of lab assistant of DeWinter)

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; Juana Printz (in Thankless in Death, that Roarke helps out with a job); Dr. Garnet DeWinter, forensic anthropologist, his daughter and their dog, Bones; Derrick working for Roarke

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. She also has a bit of aversion for being so rich and act as lady of the manor considering her husband Roarke is the richest off and on planet. She is embarrassed too to some extent.

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. She is offered captaincy in Thankless in Death (#37).

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 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 Concealed in Death (#38)

Peabody identifies a chemistry between Garnet and Morris.

Nadine Furst plans to write her second book “Ride the Red Horse” based on the case on Delusion in Death (#35). There is going to be video or film too much to the chagrin of 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!