All The World's a Stage--and Here the Audience Get to Be Witness in Death

Witness in Death by J.D. Robb
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Nora Roberts writing as JD Robb never fails to please me. Her characters are so real, from the heroine, the vulnerable but tough Detective Eve Dallas, to her slightly overweight, insecure but highly talented aide, Peabody, to her incredibly sexy, handsome, rich, Irish, supportive husband, Rourke and all the peripheral characters in the plot. The action moves, the mystery complex, the solution often a shock. This tenth installment does not disappoint.
Rourke manages to get Eve to dress to the nines and attend an opening performance of a new play at his elegant theatre. The plot is a mystery and by intermission, Eve knows that a murder will be committed and has determined who the murderer will be. Rourke refuses to confirm or deny but when the play resumes a murder--a real one --IS committed on the stage in front of a full house. The lead actor, playing a deplorable, is actually stabbed to death with a real knife that has been substituted for the prop knife that has a retractable blade.
Immediately, Eve in her designer gown, reverts to Dallas and gets the show on the road--the investigative show, that is. As always there are red herrings, convoluted associations, many reasons for the victim to be murdered and lots of people who would have wanted him dead. To compound the dead ends and run arounds, seemingly unconnected the head stagehand commits suicide--or was he murdered, too?
Keeps one going until the very end, when things are pulled together but are not what would be expected and, as usual in this future New York City of late 21st century, somehow are worse than anticipated.

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