In this 28th case for Eve Dallas, a wealthy sporting goods businessman is found dead. On the surface, it looks like a case of kinky sex gone wrong. Problems with the theory of an accident during sex quickly arise - details indicating otherwise develop from the autopsy and the victim, Thomas Anders, is an unlikely candidate to engage in risky sex practices - there is no trail indicating that Anders had contact with prostitutes. The wife, Ava, was in St. Lucia with female friends and the nephew Ben was treated like a son. Two side stories are presented early in the book: Baxter and Trueheart have reached a dead-end on a case of a man found dead, apparently at the hands of a prostitute; the wife of the victim was seeing a licensed companion, Charles Monroe who is in a relationship with a friend of Eve's, Dr. Dimatto. Something is going on with Charles, he's jumpy. Does this have anything to do with the case?

Technically, you might put the In Death.. series in with science fiction. They take place in the future whre there is off-world travel and other science fictiony elements. At heart, though, these are police procedurals.The scenes in police headquarters and in the interview room with suspects are immediately familiar to anyone who enjoys crime stories. Along with the standard police practice of hitting the streets and conducting interviews, Eve and her team use deep data mining and forensic computing to assemble their case. All of the books feature the capabilities to collect, sift, and organize to help solve the case.This data mining is only slightly in the realm of science fiction.The solutions do not depend on technology but on humans to make the connections.

The plots are always interesting but What brings me back to these stories are the characters. I hesitate to use the expression character driven but the interactions between Eve Dallas, her husband Roark, her assistant Peabody, and the other people we have come to know from other stories are what engage me.The dialog is sharp and frequently snort-out-loud funny.