Audiobook Review - Faithless in Death

I'm in two minds about when to share this write-up. Now in March or to hold fire and share in May as I'm wondering about making May a crime/thriller/mystery reading and reviewing month. But if/when I share this, I wanted you guys to read my write-up on this. I have thoughts. 

... Sod it! Let me upload this now! You guys know I'm not the word;d's best planner for this kinda stuff. Let me get info out of the way so you know what this is about! 

Title And Author: Faithless In Death by JD Robb

Publisher: Hachette Audio

Physical, eBook or Audiobook: Audiobook

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Audiobook gifted by UK publisher in exchange for honest review/reaction

Length: 400 Pages or 13 Hours 26 Minutes

In this, the 52nd book in the In Death series (yep. 52nd! FIFTY TWO BOOKS IN THIS SERIES SO FAR! That's two books a year since the first, Naked in Death, was first published in 1995!), Lt Eve Dallas is enjoying a lovely Spring morning when she gets a call. There's been a murder is mid-21st century New York. An artist has been found, her head bashed in by her own hammer. But as Eve and her team look into the murder, what looks like a lover's quarrel on the surface turns much darker as they discover their prime suspect is a member of Natural Order, a religious order that, the more Eve looks, the more she sees that this is a cult with ties to white supremacy, misogyny, racism, sexism, homophobia and religious fanaticism. 

But how far is Eve and her team willing to go to bring Natural Order down and where does the murder of a lesbian artist fit in? Does it go all the way to the top?

I think this came at the right time for me as I had fun with this. It's a whirlwind of a thriller and these are the type of Police procedural thrillers I enjoy. The one where the pace picks up quite quickly and you are running. Yes, I know that this series did start life a romance suspense with a futurist twist, but you can tell now that these are more back burner and the case is front and centre. 

This case hits a little closer to home than most. Yes, there are a ton of triggers (racism, sexism, homophobia, domestic abuse, rape, murder [of course] and others.) but with the events of the past few years with MAGA, QAnon, the KKK and the public's growing obsession with True Crime, this felt very relevant to the current times. 

There are things that did let this down. This isn't perfect (the narrator of the audiobook nails some characters's voices, but goes a little OTT with others. But she nails Eve's and as this is a Eve Dallas thriller, I'll forgive her. And while this book does stand on its own and you can jump in without knowing the previous books in series, there are occasions where titbits from previous books are dropped in), but this is a solid Police procedural thriller that I hugely enjoyed. 

Plus, comparing this newest edition to the first instalment in the series, Naked in Death [Review for that is here, FYI], which suffered with consent and being a product of its time, it good to see the JD Robb is growing and adapting. 

Because I did enjoy this and I did enjoy Naked In Death when I audiobooked it last year, I do have plans to try and read a few in the coming few months (I have Dark In Death [book 46 in series] and Golden in Death [book 50 in the series] on my kindle, though I am leaning more to Golden than Dark) and if both go well, I might get the In Death Christmas Collection (I like reading murder set round Christmas time. Sue me), which have two novels and one short story. I am going to try to read more of this series, but I suspect I might be more happier with this series newer instalments than her earlier instalments. We'll just have to wait and see how I go...