It's 2061 and people communicate via video links, travel in semi-flying cars, and have personal food dispensers that resemble vending machines.
Lt. Eve Dallas is a capable New York detective married to Irish billionaire Roarke - a handsome devil with wild blue eyes. Real estate magnate Roarke also functions as an expert consultant to the New York Police and Securities Department (NYPSD), and is especially helpful with financial crimes.
A robbery and murder bring Lt. Dallas and Roarke to a New York mansion in a ritzy gated community.
The recently deceased owner, centenarian billionaire Henry Barrister.....
.....left the home to his son Nathan, who moved in with his wife Eileen and their two daughters, who are away at Harvard.
Nathan is now CEO of the family company, a lucrative multinational organization, and his sister Joy is the CFO.
While Nathan and Eileen were renovating an office area on the mansion's main level, a hidden vault-room was revealed - a large chamber containing paintings, sculptures, statues, jewelry, and other artifacts stolen from museums and collections all over the world.
The horrified couple realized patriarch Henry bought these pilfered treasures, worth billions of dollars, and hoarded them for his own pleasure.
Nathan and Eileen knew exposure of Henry's perfidy would cause a TREMENDOUS scandal, blacken Henry's reputation, and blow back on the entire family. So rather than inform the authorities, the Barristers wanted to quietly give back the stolen items, which required working with lawyers, curators, art collectors, and so on.
Before the treasures could be returned, however, a thief broke into the vault, took 'The Royal Suite' (a collection of emerald and diamond jewelry) worth a fortune, and killed Nathan Barrister, who apparently caught the burglar in the act.
The murderer hit Nathan in the head with a huge ornamental amethyst that sat on a lighted table in the office, apparently a weapon of convenience.
Eve's job is to catch the killer, and to do that, she must figure out WHO KNEW about the hidden vault. Henry kept it secret from his children and grandchildren, and presumably didn't confide in friends or acquaintances either.
Eve and her team at the NYPSD, including her hippy-dippy partner Sergeant Delia Peabody, learn Henry had a soft spot for beautiful young women.
Henry was married four times, was serially unfaithful, and had numerous girlfriends. Did Henry reveal his criminal hoarding to one of these women? Eve's squad works very hard to find out.
The book has a VERY slow start as the detectives talk and discuss and theorize and try to identify a thief. They also must suss out accomplices, brokers, buyers, etc. Once Eve and her team hone in on likely suspects, they make plans to capture and prosecute the wrongdoers.
Unfortunately for Eve and Roarke, there's a huge problem with all this. It turns out Roarke - who had a rough childhood and started out life as a thief - stole 'The Royal Suite' from the Tate Museum when he was a teenager. The job was commissioned by a broker, and Roarke got a generous payday that started him on the road to success.
Exposing the current day thief/murderer might draw attention to Roarke, who's been on Interpol's radar for a long time. Thus Eve must walk a fine line, exposing Nathan Barrister's robber/killer while not drawing attention to her husband.
In their personal lives, Eve and Roarke seem to be in a perpetual honeymoon phase. At home, they dine on meals like meatballs and spaghetti or pizza, swim in their pool, and enjoy each other's company. Roarke is an attentive spouse who picks out Eve's clothes, designed a lightweight Kevlar vest for her, and takes care of her bumps and bruises.
It's fun that everyone in Eve and Roarke's home, including the butler Sommerset, is very attentive to the cat Galahad - who seems to rule the roost.
Any long series will have its ups and downs and, in my view, this book is a mediocre addition to the Eve Dallas series. I found the first part of the novel repetitive, slow-moving, and boring, and was glad when things picked up in the later chapters. Still, fans of the series might enjoy visiting with characters they know and like.
I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Susan Ericksen, who does a fine job, especially with Roarke's Irish accent.
Thanks to Netgalley, J.D. Robb, and Macmillan Audio for a copy of the book.
Rating: 3 stars
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