The #1 New York Times bestselling author spins an epic tale of loyalty, treachery, murder, and the long shadow of war…
His passport read Giovanni Rossi. But decades ago, during the Urban Wars, he was part of a small, secret organization called The Twelve. Responding to an urgent summons from an old compatriot, he landed in New York and eased into the waiting car. And died within minutes…
Lieutenant Eve Dallas finds the Rossi case frustrating. She’s got an elderly victim who’d just arrived from Rome; a widow who knows nothing about why he’d left; an as-yet unidentifiable weapon; and zero results on facial recognition. But when she finds a connection to the Urban Wars of the 2020s, she thinks Summerset―fiercely loyal, if somewhat grouchy, major-domo and the man who’d rescued her husband from the Dublin streets―may know something from his stint as a medic in Europe back then.
When Summerset learns of the crime, his shock and grief are clear―because, as he eventually reveals, he himself was one of The Twelve. It’s not a part of his past he likes to revisit. But now he must―not only to assist Eve’s investigation, but because a cryptic message from the killer has boasted that others of The Twelve have also died. Summerset is one of those who remain―and the murderous mission is yet to be fully accomplished…

My Review:

Dallas and Roarke and the ever-expanding found family that surrounds them are clearly bonded by, in and FOR life at this point in their long-running and hopefully continuing forever story. And that’s from a beginning in Naked in Death where both Dallas and Roarke were mostly loners who were wary of letting ANYONE inside their circle of trust.

Over the course of the series, through several stories that I refer to as ‘trips to the angst factory’, where their separate but similarly torturous childhoods have been laid bare and they’ve dealt with their own and each other’s emotional fallout and (undiagnosed but obvious) PTSD.

Throughout those trips down the terrifying back alleys of memory lane, and right up until their present, there has been one dour figure who shone the light of rescue in the darkest parts of Roarke’s childhood – and continues to keep the home fires burning even in Roarke’s lavish and secure ‘castle’ in New York City.

That person, who dresses like an undertaker and can’t resist a never-ending string of gibes at Dallas – even as she gives it right back – is Summerset, the man who helped make Roarke the man he is. And very much vice versa.

This 60th book in the In Death series isn’t so much Dallas and Roarke’s story as it is Summerset’s book. We’ve always known that Summerset had a much more interesting past than his present appearance would lead anyone to ever believe. And we’ve probably all wondered about it now and again. Well, I certainly have.

This is THAT story. Not as a trip down memory lane, but rather as a case of the long-buried past coming back to bite Summerset and his compatriots from the dark and desperate days of the Urban Wars. The days when every day they woke up above ground was an unexpected blessing, and when the only good day was a yesterday years in the past.

Someone is coming for all of the remaining members of ‘The Twelve’, the intelligence cell that finally broke the back of the Dominion and the other forces that had been tearing down people and governments for nearly a decade in a tide of rage and propaganda during the Urban Wars. The Twelve were betrayed back then by one of their own. He knows them – and they know him – all too well.

But he doesn’t know Eve Dallas, and he doesn’t know Roarke. He only thinks he does. And they only care about keeping Summerset and his brothers-and-sisters-in-arms alive. With their still very able assistance every step of the way.

Escape Rating A: I’ve been looking for comfort reads this week, and have had some hits (The Orb of Cairado) and some real misses (Beast of the North Woods) in my search. This OMG 60th book in the long-running In Death series absolutely hit the sweet spot I needed. I’ve been a fan of this series since the very beginning with Naked in Death, and I always love seeing how Dallas & Company are doing whether the case they have to solve is absorbing or merely an excuse to see my old friends – even Summerset’s old friends.

This entry in the series was WAY bigger and better than that. Along with being an excellent excuse to visit some truly dear friends. To the point where I had to wait a couple of days to write this review because I needed to tone down the SQUEE!

Which means that A rating is because I loved it and it absolutely was the right book at the right time. But it is also, absolutely, a book for the fans who know all the players without needing a scorecard AND who know enough about who’s who and what’s what to have always wondered what secrets have been hiding behind Summerset’s implacable but long-suffering demeanor.

What made this particular entry in the series so absorbing was the combination of the relentless pace of the current pursuit combined with just the right amount of information both about the past of this world and about the past of the individuals who were, and still are, The Twelve. Including Summerset.

We’ve not seen much detail about the Urban Wars, just that they happened (in our right now, which is frightening all by itself) and that they made a mess of their world that is still in recovery almost forty years later. Dallas and Roarke weren’t born until the end of the war, although many of the people they know lived through it – not just Summerset. One of the things done very well was the way that those who did serve all look back at those times with a combination of nostalgia, regret and resignation. It felt similar to the way that World War II veterans talked about their service and the times they lived through twenty plus years after THEIR service, which gave the whole thing a touch of the real.

Which is something that is always true of the whole series. This story is set in 2061, which is not as far from our now as we imagine it is – or was when the author began publishing this series in our 1995. But people who will be alive in 2061 have not merely already been born, but some of those people are already adults in the here and now.

All of which means that the world as we know it is still VERY recognizable in Dallas’ and Roarke’s 2061, which helps readers absorb the things that are different even as in some areas we’ve almost caught up. To take one example, the technological distance between our smartphones and their ‘links’ gets tinier every year.

I’ve written a lot and all around because I do love this series very much – even the entries that don’t quite live up to the peak that this one does. It answers SO MANY questions about Summerset’s past and puts so much more flesh on the bones of the Urban Wars that have always been lurking in the background. On top of that, it tells a fascinating story and does a great job of making the mystery compelling even though Eve figures out who the perpetrator is fairly early on. This one is all about the chase and it keeps the reader on the edge of their seat wanting to make sure that Eve puts the bastard in a cage before he puts any of her nearest and dearest in the ground.

There’s still more than enough stuff about the fam to let readers know how everyone is doing – especially my boy Galahad, the big cat who is truly the king of Roarke’s castle. The delicious icing on this particular story cake was the way that Dallas and Roarke included all the members of The Twelve, all those old soldiers, in the work of getting righteous payback on their traitor, and that they all got to bear witness. As they should and as they’d earned.

So that’s a wrap – with a delightfully ‘frosty’ bow on top – of Bonded in Death, the 60th book in the In Death series. I already have a copy of book 61, Framed in Death, and I can’t tell you how much I’m tempted to start it right now!