Portrait in Death (In Death Series #16)

by J. D. Robb

Overview

A serial killer takes his dead victims' portraits and sends them to the media. Lieutenant Eve Dallas counts on her husband's help to crack the case, but he's just learned a devastating truth about his past.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101191217
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	02/25/2003
Series:	In Death Series , #16
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	668
File size:	1 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

J.D. Robb is the pseudonym for a number one New York Times bestselling author of more than 190 novels, including the futuristic suspense In Death series. There are more than 400 million copies of her books in print.

Nora Roberts is truly a publishing phenomenon. With over 250 million copies of her novels in print, she has come a long way since she wrote her first novel in a spiral notebook using a No. 2 pencil. Now she has published over 150 novels and her work has been optioned and made into films, excerpted in national magazines and translated in over twenty-five different countries. "I always have stories running around in my head," she explains. "Once I start putting them down on paper, I just keep going; I just keep writing." In addition to her amazing success in mainstream fiction, Nora Roberts remains committed to writing for her category romance audience that took her to into their heart in 1981 with her very first book, a Silhouette romance.



Nora Roberts continues to write futuristic romantic suspense as J.D. Robb, and her characters Eve Dallas and Roarke have become two of her most popular creations ever. Her J.D. Robb titles are hailed as "a perfect balance of suspense, futuristic police procedure and steamy romance...truly fine entertainment" by Publishers Weekly.



Reviewers agree that Nora Roberts deserves praise. The Los Angeles Daily News describes her as "a word artist, painting her story and her characters with vitality and verve." Kirkus Reviews comments on True Betrayals saying "Roberts' style has a fresh, contemporary snap." Roberts is said to be "reminiscent of Jacqueline Briskin and Sidney Sheldon" by Booklist, and Rex Reed lauds her saying, "Move over Sidney Sheldon: the world has a new master of romantic suspense, and her name is Nora Roberts." Publishers Weekly claims "Roberts keeps getting better...[her] prolificness shows no sign of abating." They add, "When Roberts puts her expert finger on the pulse of romance, legions of fans feel the heartbeat." USA Today calls Nora "a consistently entertaining writer."



The remarkable Ms. Roberts did not become a success overnight. By the time her first novel, Irish Thoroughbred, was published in 1981, she already had three years of hard work behind her and several rejected manuscripts languishing in drawers. Today, according to Entertainment Weekly, "her stories have fueled the dreams of twenty-five million readers." One of America's leading novelists, her books are published around the world. She is frequently invited to promote her novels in other countries. Her recent travels took her to England, Italy, Australia and Japan to meet fans, fellow authors and aspiring writers.



Sanctuary was made into a television movie which aired in 2001 on CBS as "Nora Roberts' Sanctuary." The cast includes Melissa Gilbert, Emmy-winner Kathy Baker and Costas Mandylor. CBS has also optioned The Reef for another television movie. Montana Sky has been optioned by TriStar Television for a two-hour television movie. Her book This Magic Moment became the television film "Magic Moments" starring Emmy-winner John Shea and Jenny Seagrove. Sacred Sins has been optioned for film by Kaleidoscope, and Private Scandals has been optioned by Burt Reynolds Productions. Reflections and The Law is a Lady were selected by Good Housekeeping magazine for presentation as condensed novels. Honest Illusions and Private Scandals were featured as Readers Digest's Condensed Books.


The Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Cosmopolitan, People Magazine and Entertainment Weekly have all featured or mentioned Nora Roberts in articles about writing and the romance genre. She has appeared on ABC-TV's Good Morning America and Cable News Network, and has been featured on the television programs To Tell the Truth, Entertainment Tonight, and Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. She has been interviewed by local television and radio programs across the country, and she has been featured in dozens of newspapers, including the Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, Toronto Star, The Toronto Sun, Washington Times, Detroit Free Press, Chicago Tribune, and Atlanta Constitution.

Her extraordinary accomplishments have also received recognition from her peers. The first author ever to be inducted into the Romance Writers of America's Hall of Fame, and the first author to receive their Centennial Award when she published her 100th novel Montana Sky, she is the recipient of almost every award given in recognition of excellence in romance writing. In 1997, she was honored at the Romance Writers of America National Conference when she was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award. In addition to her awards from the Romance Writers of America, she has also received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Waldenbooks, and she has been honored by B. Dalton Booksellers, the New Jersey Chapter of Romance Writers of America, and BookRak Distributors.



Nora Roberts is a charter member of the Romance Writers of America, and a member of their Washington, D.C. chapter. She was the keynote speaker at their 1994 national conference in New York. She is also a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, The Crime Writers League of America, and Novelists Inc.

The youngest of five children, she was born in Silver Spring, Maryland. She now lives in Keedysville, Maryland.

Hometown:

Keedysville, Maryland

Date of Birth:

1950

Place of Birth:

Silver Spring, Maryland

Website:

http://www.noraroberts.com/

Editorial Reviews

The Barnes & Noble Review
The futuristic mysteries Nora Roberts writes as J. D. Robb are powerful police procedurals that satisfy any reader with a craving for justice and a taste for passion. New York City homicide detective Eve Dallas has really been looking forward to her husband's butler's upcoming vacation -- 21 days free of his constant nitpicking, plus a chance to be uninhibitedly sensual with the handsome Roarke in absolute privacy. Then the butler takes a fall that postpones his vacation indefinitely, and a body found in a dumpster calls Eve away from the home front for a new case. When she learns that the press has received a portfolio containing professional-quality images of the victim -- including some that were carefully posed after death -- she begins to suspect that, from the killer's demented perspective, murder is an art form, and she begins to realize that this crime is only the first part of a serial killer's chillingly lethal work-in-progress. As Eve strives to make sure the deadly masterpiece is never completed, she also searches desperately for the key to some disturbing changes in her relationship with Roarke. Sue Stone

...a masterpiece.

Romantic Times

Lieutenant Eve Dallas may live in 2059, but she's still a recognizable Manhattan police officer: mouthy, courageous, skeptical and impatient. In Roberts's latest In Death novel (after Purity in Death), she's charged with finding a killer who murders young people full of innocence and promise, photographs them after death, then taunts both a top reporter and Dallas herself with notes about his handiwork. Just as her investigation of Manhattan's clubs and colleges nears its peak, Eve's husband, the wealthy entrepreneur Roarke, discovers that his mother is not the cold abandoner he remembers, but a tender young Irishwoman whom his father brutally murdered. While he struggles to understand his heritage, the couple must navigate stormy marital waters. Though the mystery's denouement doesn't live up to its promise, the book ably delivers on other fronts. Intensely female yet unfeminine in any traditional sense, Dallas has a complex edge that transcends genre stereotypes and gives the book's romantic interludes a real charge. As always in Roberts's work, appealing secondary characters add genuine warmth and humor. And while this futuristic vision of New York may not be totally accurate (it's unlikely, for example, that Dallas's oft-used "bite me" will still be in vogue 50 years from now), it's perfectly calibrated to intrigue. (Mar. 4) Forecast: There should be no surprises here. Like its predecessors, this Robb novel will head straight to the top of the bestseller charts. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

It's the year 2059, and Lt. Eve Dallas is tracking another serial killer in New York City-this time a photographer with an eye for the pure and innocent. Eve is serious and focused in her quest for justice, but humor is added throughout by her precocious sidekick, Peabody, and by their loose grasp of history: Who were Ansel Adams and Mathew Brady and why would rising young photographers take these odd noms de plume anyway? Together, Eve and Peabody trace the killer through the student culture of Columbia University and the Juilliard School. Meanwhile, Eve's Irish husband, Roarke, learns disturbing information about his past that has him lashing out at the people who love him most. Susan Ericksen has established voices that mirror the quirks of the recurring characters: Eve's impatience with anything that gets in the way of her case, Peabody's curiosity about everything in work and life, and Roarke's anger at having his ideas challenged. Highly recommended.-Juleigh Muirhead Clark, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Lib., Colonial Williamsburg Fdn., VA Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

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