J. D. Robb: In Death Series, Books 29-30: Kindred in Death, Fantasy in Death

Kindred in Death

When the newly promoted captain of the NYPSD and his wife return a day early from their vacation, they are looking forward to spending time with their bright and vivacious sixteen-year-old daughter, who stayed behind.

Not even their worst nightmares could prepare them for the crime scene that awaits them instead. Deena has been brutally murdered in her bedroom, and her body shows signs of trauma that horrify even the toughest of cops, including our own Lieutenant Eve Dallas, who is specifically requested by the captain to investigate.

When the evidence starts to pile up, Dallas and her team think they are about to arrest their perpetrator; little do they know that someone has gone to great lengths to tease and taunt them by using a variety of identities.

Overconfidence can lead to careless mistakes. But for Dallas, one mistake might be all she needs to serve justice.

Fantasy in Death

Bart Minnock, founder of the computer gaming giant U-Play, enters his private room, and eagerly can't wait to lose himself in an imaginary world, to take on the role of a sword-wielding warrior king, in his company's latest top-secret project, Fantastical.

The next morning, he is found in the same locked room, in a pool of blood, his head separated from his body. It is the most puzzling case Lieutenant Eve Dallas has ever faced, and it is not a game....

She is having as much trouble figuring out how Bart Minnock was murdered as determining who did the murdering. The victim's girlfriend seems sincerely grief-stricken, and his quirky but brilliant partners at U-Play appear shocked as well. No one seems to have had a problem with the enthusiastic, high-spirited millionaire.

Of course, success can attract jealousy, and gaming, like any business, has its fierce rivalries and dirty tricks--as Eve's husband, Roarke, one of U-Play's competitors, knows well. But Minnock was not naive, and he knew how to fight back in the real world as well as the virtual one.

Eve and her team are about to enter the next level of police work, in a world where fantasy is the ultimate seduction--and the price of defeat is death.