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Sunday 17 June 2012

Review: NAKED IN DEATH

Naked In Death by JD Robb
Book 1 of the In Death series
Narrated by Cristine McMurdo-Wallis
Genre: SciFi murder mystery, police investigation
Format: paperback, audiobook

About Naked In Death:
In hardcover for the first time, here is the novel that started it all-the first book in J. D. Robb's number-one New York Times-bestselling In Death series, featuring New York City homicide detective Lieutenant Eve Dallas and Roarke.

It is the year 2058, and technology now completely rules the world. But New York City Detective Eve Dallas knows that the irresistible impulses of the human heart are still ruled by just one thing-passion.

When a senator's daughter is killed, the secret life of prostitution she'd been leading is revealed. The high-profile case takes Lieutenant Eve Dallas into the rarefied circles of Washing-ton politics and society. Further complicating matters is Eve's growing attraction to Roarke, who is one of the wealthiest and most influential men on the planet, devilishly handsome... and the leading suspect in the investigation.
Source: Info in the About Naked In Death was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/268602.Naked_in_Death on 18/02/2012.

Review:
The paperback edition was given to me by my bookblogger secret santa about three christmases ago but I never got around to reading it... until I found this book again in audio format in the Library. When I got tired of Charlaine Harris's Aurora Teagarden's series, I started listening to this one. I think one of the major deterrent for me from reading this book was that it got such an uninspiring cover. Yeah, I'm a visual person and my reading habit is influenced accordingly. Specially with authors whose work I haven't tried yet. I've scanned the CD jacket cover art but I haven't uploaded it with this post because it was just that ugly.

I find that Cristine McMurdo-Wallis's voice is not as easy on the ears as Therese Plummer's voice is, nor Johanna Parker's. But eventually, I got used to her voice.

It took a while for me to get into the story. I am not sure whether it was a story telling quality flaw or if it was the quality of voice of the narrator...

For some reason, there are times when I could not distinguish when the narration changes in characters thus I sometimes got confused when the story line does not make sense to me. That is when having the paperback comes in really handy. I could read back and determine that Feeney is now talking and not Eve anymore. This probably also contributed to my confusion when characters seemed to be suddenly thrust at the reader without so much as a preamble... and me wondering who was Feeney again? Had to rewind back a few times and listen again. When that didn't work, I try to find the page in the paperback and read again. This made the pace of this book considerably slower than the 11 hours the audiobook is suppose to be.

The plot. I like the secondary plot of a romance in it. I also have to say that it was just slightly predictable. I knew who the perpetrator was and I was right. Dang!! But after listening to the Aurora Teagarden books' "2D" and "1D" plots, this book is decidedly "3D" plot-wise. Have to give kudos to a murder mystery with a layering of plots and twists even if it was kinda predictable.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 3.5
Character development = 4.5
Story itself = 3.5
Ending = 3.5
World building = 4
Cover art = 2
Pace = 11-hours audiobook
Plot = 3.5
Narrator = 2

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 cherries


RCT LibraryThank you to the RCT Library for letting me borrow this audiobook!!


FTC Disclosure:
This audiobook was borrowed from the library. No money received for this review.

7 comments:

Blodeuedd said...

I have been meaning to try one of her books for ages, I am curious about Roarke

Tales of Whimsy said...

I keep meaning to try Nora on audio. I wonder how his varies from her regular writing.

Cherry said...

Blodeuedd - It also took me forever to start reading this series even if I had the books in my TBR shelf for years.

Juju at Tales of Whimsy.com - This is the first series I have tried of Nora Roberts, maybe I ought to try out her other works to make a comparison.

Jaskirat@SeeitORreadit said...

Cool review! I haven't heard of this one but it sounds interesting. Thanks for the review :-) Glad to hear you enjoyed it!


Following your blog! Feel free to stop by my blog!
SeeitORreadit

Cherry said...

Thanks for the follow Jaskirat! :)

Melissa (My World...in words and pages) said...

Very well done review. Thank you!

Anonymous said...

I am trying to expand on the sort of books that I read, so I would like to try J.D. Robb. This one does not sound like the best of them since I have a problem with a book that is too predictable, but I will have to give one a try. Thank you for your review.

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