"Fantasy In Death”     by J.D. Robb

Review #52

The year is 2060 and Lt. Eve Dallas, a top homicide cop for the New York Police and Security Department, faces one of the most challenging cases of her career.

Bart Minnock, the genius founder of the computer gaming company, U-Play, literally loses his head, apparently while he was role-playing against an imaginary opponent in a prototype of a fantasy adventure that could rock the industry. Security logs show no one entered Minnock's building around the time of his murder, presenting a futuristic variation on the classic locked-room mystery.

Now, Lieutenant Eve Dallas has to come up with a plausible theory as to how someone could bypass the foolproof security in the millionaire's holo-room and decapitate him. The fact that the popular gaming guru doesn't seem to have any enemies isn't making Eve's job any easier. But, the more time Eve spends investigating the case, the more evidence she finds that several people may have had a reason for wanting Bart out of the way.

With a little hands-on training from her husband, Roarke, (who was a potential business rival of the victim), Eve sets out to write a program for catching a clever killer.

I have loved 29 of the books in this series. I love Lt. Eve Dallas and her kazillionaire husband, Roarke and the futuristic possibilities of their time. This is the 30th book J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts’ alter ego) has written in this series and it was a little too much fantasy for me.

 If you have never read any of this series and you like fantasy mysteries, you will love this one. If you are a fan of J.D. Robb and her Dallas character…I think…you will be just a little disappointed.