Concealed in Death is probably my least favorite entry in the Eve Dallas series. I felt that there were some places that just weren’t right… Roarke patting Eve’s rear end as they enter an elevator? That would not happen in a million years… The great characters were mostly in bit roles. The dialogue between Peabody and Dallas was lacking its personal touches and was almost just at the ‘necessary for business’ level. Jokes between Roarke and Dallas about their “next” spouses???? Never! the relationship is way too important for them to even joke about such a thing. Perhaps the new forensic lady was brought in to provide conflict in future books, but I was surprised that Eve didn’t come on quite a bit stronger with her, establishing the pecking order as it was. Eve should not be one to be intimidated by someone’s clothes and status, so it didn’t feel right. The geek crew was missing… There has always been closeness with Morris, here they barely spoke? On one page Eve and Roarke’s conversation is all about a guy’s ‘dick’ (5 times).. their conversations usually aren’t quite so low in tone. Eve is sarcastic, but not crude. I could go on.
The mystery itself was okay, but it truly felt to me that someone had written the book that barely knew the people involved, or some editor was feeling that things should be going in a different direction, but whatever the reason the book just didn’t work for me. This is the 38th book in the series and I have to say that it has kept fresh for a remarkably long time by the characters growing over time. I will read the next one to see how it goes, but if it’s like this one it will probably be the end of the series for me.
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