Immortal in Death, by JD Robb (In Death #3)

I've continued reading the early books in the In Death series, by JD Robb. The latest I've read is book # 3, Immortal in Death.

When a ruthless model is brutally murdered, police lieutenant Eve Dallas puts her career on the line in order to clear her best friend of suspicion, an endeavor that leads her into the world of high fashion and underworld drugs.

As I said when talking about the previous installment in the series, these first few books are incredible, and Eve and Roarke's relationship is very exciting in them. They don't know all the details in each other's pasts yet, and the scene where we see Roarke's reactions when Eve tells him about a horrific incident in her past were really poignant. For this, and for the interesting mystery, my grade is an A-.

I also enjoyed the way the character of Eve's best friend Mavis was much more developed. She's the person who becomes a suspect in this investigation, and both her reactions to this and Eve's tell us a lot about these two women and their friendship.

About the mystery... I'm not usually fond of drug subplots, since they usually end up being "international crime ring" type of novels, but this particular one was more intimate than that, so it worked for me. Also, I found the peek into the fashion models' world really interesting, not all that different from what it is now, from what I've heard. ;-)

Oh, and I just loved the way Eve kept having to make little detours to finalize wedding preparations. LOL, she really hated it! The fact that she made time for them and did her best spoke volumes about her love for Roarke. And BTW, these "extracurricular" activites were welcome break from the gritty murder investigation, and very funny, too.