PASSIONS IN DEATH by JD Robb

3.5* Getting tired and formulaic, again. Felt misandric and a bit lazy in the final chapters. I think the bad guy's a Republican male, pun unintentional. 

JD Robb can write, no doubt about it, but this series - that I abandoned about 7 years ago, only to pick up again last year out of book boredom - feels tired and as if there's a tickbox exercise to name-drop as many 'regulars' as possible, even though they don't appear in the tale. Sadly, I'm reminded with this one why I left the series behind, despite a half-decent read. There's a reliance on formula and (here, inorganic) feelgood personal connections, not so much a murder-mystery with clues and excellent investigating. 

Charlotte Mira appeared only to tell Eve that she was doing a good profiling job herself, but at least she had a small organic part in the tale. Maybe that's Dr Mira exiting future tales, after all, she really didn't do much profiling, but there was time for floral tea, of course.

Dennis Mira appeared in a phone call about trying to locate some wine and mentioning bbq sauce, I think. End of.

Charles appeared in an Eve-Peabody convo about bumping uglies and then remaining friends when you've both moved on. Louise, Charles's wife, I think, appears in the same convo.

Feeney appeared with his eyes closed, figuring something out. 

Baxter and Truehart, I think, closed an out-of-jurisdiction case that they left NY for. That had no relevance to the tale. 

Morris did the autopsy. End of.

Mavis, Leonardo and Bella have a tiny cameo, and boy, that little girl is starting to get irritating. 

Peabody and McNab's shared house with Mavis, Leonardo and Bella has become a big, boring part of each tale. How long is it taking to refurbish?? I think it's been about 2 years and counting.

Roarke could've been gone on business and wouldn't have been missed. 

Interactions with Summerset and Galahad seem forced. I mean, I'm glad Eve's juvenile and forced quips towards Summerset in previous books have matured into something a little more respectful, but other than greeting her/them in the foyer, he wasn't part of the tale. 

SIGH.

The storyline is sad, but with 2 scarlet-instead-of-red herrings that gave the book away from the start. The focus on one character felt a lot misandric, and on the other, misogynistic and too not-casual-enough. The portrayal of the former character at the end, was a misogynistic and sociopathic one, but with some really not exciting examples that were meant to rile and provoke sociopathy, but these felt like they'd been dragged from a pile of straws being clutched at. The case against this character was not really evidenced well, though Eve got her man. He felt like he'd been meant to tick all the tickboxes a (2024, un/semi-educated, X-portrayed, media-portrayed) Republican male likely would, but JDR either got wary of pissing off her Republican readership or didn't want to fully go there. So yeah, it just came across as Eve portraying misandry as a plot tool. 

It's clear that JDR doesn't need developmental editors. She knows her stuff and the tried-and-trusted works for her and her readers - I don't think I know of any author with book 59 of a series. But, it's kind of insulting to readers when editors ignore stuff like the following, that appear in almost consecutive paragraphs on the same page:

She shrugged as she crunched into bacon.      

She glanced at him as she dug into her eggs. 

She paused as she cut into a fat sausage.      

She considered as she ate.

It's just lazy and formulaic. And it's not great writing, as it's not being done for effect or emphasis. 

Will I read more? Yes, as long as all I'm paying is a reservation fee at my local library. In years past, there'd be many copies ordered in and I'd be on a long waiting list. With this one, I requested the book about 5-6 weeks ago, was 1st in the queue and got it on release day. So yeah, maybe tired and formulaic are taking their tolls.