Fantastic, I couldn’t have loved it more. Eve and Roarke relationship grew even stronger, together and apart. They are couple goals. I cried, I laughed and I was a little creeped out. I love Peabody and Mcnab, they are hilarious. Feeny is so lovable, and he and Eve are so great together when they have there kinda father and daughter moments. I couldn’t put it down, I am loving the audiobooks too. Highly recommend this series to everyone.

This one's very sad to read. I mean, all murders are But this one got deeper to me than the rest. There was no brutality in the murders just a twisted, mentally ill killer who thinks he's preserving their youth, vitality and energy by killing them. By immortalizing them.

Eve is distracted and off because worried about Roarke. She's still learning about the rules of marriage and stuff.

Roarke. He's not his perfect self in this one. A secret from his past came to light and he didn't know how to deal with it. I was heartbroken for him but couldn't love him any less. Roarke and Eve are good for each other.

Another excellent installment in this series. One of the things that has so amazed and impressed me about it is Nora Roberts' ability to introduce a new element into the relationship of Eve and Roarke. Most authors tend to delay marriage between the MCs to prolong that tension between them. Ms. Roberts manages to do that in every book even though they are now an "old married couple."

In this one, Roarke runs across a woman who knew his mother - his REAL mother, not the woman he remembered that he always assumed was his mom. This really messes him up and he does not handle it well. AT. ALL. He withdraws from Eve, is generally cold and nasty to her, and takes off for Ireland without telling her anything other than he was leaving.

And to top it off, Summerset is out of commission, having tripped over Galahad while going down the stairs and broken his leg. And on the day he had planned to leave on vacation! Eve was SOOOO disappointed!

For once, though, Eve actually is civil to Summerset - she shares her concern over Roarke with him. And she actually leaves New York in the middle of a case to go be with Roarke in Ireland. His attitude really shook her!

It was great to see the roles reversed with Roarke vulnerable and prickly for once and Eve really steps up to the occasion. She acts downright wifely!

All the usual players are there, although they, and even the case, take a back seat to Roarke's issues.

(Roarke) “You’re certainly chipper this morning.”
(Eve) "Damn straight. Chipper’s my middle name. I’m going out to spread joy and laughter to all of mankind.”

(Eve and Peabody)
“Perhaps I should point out that we’re investigating a homicide, not going off on a man-ogling spree.”
"I like to multitask whenever possible. Speaking of which, maybe we could get some actual food. That way, we could investigate, feed the body, and ogle.”
"There will be no ogling. Henceforth, ogling is forbidden at any and all junctures of active investigations.”
Peabody pursed her lips. “You’re really mean today.”
"Yes. Yes, I am.” Eve took a deep gulp of hideous air, and smiled. “I feel good about that.”

(More Eve and Peabody)
"So why is it my aide and his detective are chatting about the information in my investigation?”
"It just happened to come up—between kissy noises.” She smiled, pleased when Eve’s eye twitched. “And sexual innuendos.”
"As soon as this case is closed, I’m putting in for a new aide—one who has no sexual drive whatsoever—and transferring you to Files.”
"Aw. Now that you’ve hurt my feelings, I’m not inclined to share my sandwich.”

(Still more Eve and Peabody)
". . . it goes very well with the shortbread cookies I have for dessert.” She took the tiny package out of her bag and made a production out of opening it.
"Give me a goddamn cookie, or I’ll hurt you. You know I can.”
"My fear is almost as great as my love for you, Lieutenant.”
Eve found a slot on the second level, curbside, and zipped up the ramp at a speed and angle that had Peabody’s lunch lurching dangerously in her belly. Delicately, Eve brushed cookie crumbs off her shirt. “Smartasses always pay.”
"You never do,” Peabody said under her breath.

(And finally more Eve and Peabody)
“What’s that? Is that chocolate? Real chocolate?”
"What?” Panicked, Eve shoved the hand behind her back. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m working here.”
"I can smell it.” To prove it, Peabody sniffed the air like a wolf. “That’s not chocolate substitute, that’s not soy. That’s real goods.” “Maybe. And it’s mine.”
"Just let me have a little—” Peabody’s gasp was shocked and heartfelt as Eve stuffed the remaining chunk in her mouth. “Oh, Dallas.” She swallowed hard. “That was very childish.”
"Uh-uh. And delicious,” Eve added with her mouth full. “What’ve you got?”
"I don’t have chocolate breath, that’s for damn sure.” At Eve’s arch look, she pokered up. “While others, who will remain nameless, were stuffing their face with candy, I diligently pursued an angle in the investigation that I believe might be of some interest to the incredibly selfish candy-hog primary.”
"It was dark chocolate.”
"You’re a mean person and will probably go to hell.”
"I can live with that."

Roarke, about to discover his mother's family: "And there was nothing in his life he could remember fearing as much as he feared knocking on the bright blue door of that old stone house."

Hard to imagine Roarke as vulnerable as this: "When emotion stormed through him, Sinead did what came naturally. She drew his head to her breast, stroked his hair. “There now,” she murmured, holding her sister’s boy."

When Roarke sees Eve across an Irish field: "Then he saw her, the shape of her in the cockpit beside the pilot. The choppy cap of hair, the curve of her cheek. Pale, naturally. She hated riding in those machines. The grass of the field went swimming in the displaced air as the copter set down. Then the sound died, the air was still. She jumped down, a light pack slung over her arm. And his world righted again."

Eve sees cows again: "“I’m not going back with the cows. I don’t love you that much.” “We’ll leave the cows to their cow business.” “Which is what, exactly? No, I don’t want to know,” she decided as he pulled her out the door. “I get these weird and scary pictures in my head."

Roarke's aunt: "The love was naked on him when he saw it was you, and it’s one of the loveliest things I’ve ever seen."

Reviewed: 11-13-20

Very Emotional

Overall : 5 stars
Performance : 5 stars
Story: 5 stars

Portrait In Death theme is Mothers' Love. And it's one of the most emotional books of the series thus far.

Rourke is blindsided by monumental information about his past and his mother . And the killer/killers (no spoilers from me) motivation to commit his/her/their heinous crimes.

Susan Ericksen performance was brilliant as usual.

Portrait in Death
In Death, book 16
By: J. D. Robb
Narrated by: Susan Ericksen

A real one-two punch to the gut. Both on the mystery front and Roarke's personal storyline. Very powerful!

**mild spoilers (plot summary)**

Portrait in Death started out slow. It starts with Eve jumping up and down with joy because her husband's majordomo is going on a 3 week vacation. Yes, that right! Summerset is going back to Ireland for a vacation. Unfortunately, he gets laid up. The cat of all things causes his fall.
Meanwhile, watching Summerset fall has taken ten years off of Roarke's life. He has his hands full juggling his schedule around and taking care of Summerset.
Eve reluctantly takes personal time to do her 'wifely' duties and support her husband. In the end, she gets through to Summerset better than Roarke, go figure!
And suddenly a bomb of massive proportions is dropped on Roarke. He can't even begin to understand how it can be possible. So he shuts Eve out and holes up. Taking Mavis' advice, Eve kicks his butt and drags the problem out of him. But Roarke has something he needs to see to in Ireland, ditching Eve in the last minute. This time taking Feeney's advice, Eve helps him out. Roarke has never been more grateful to see Eve.

I was almost sure Roarke wasn't going to be a civilian consultant this time. I guess I was wrong. He does excellent cop work towards the end. A racy ending to its slow start; just what this novel needed.

I've deliberately left out most of the murder stuff this time. I felt Roarke was the center of this book. I enjoyed the sub-plot more. Kept wanting to skip pages and read about the Ireland stuff. Just when I thought there couldn't be any more layers, Robb goes and adds one more.

The murder investigation was added almost like an afterthought. It was good but not great.
Roarke... now he was simply awesome.

Reread February 20, 2025
Third time through and it made me cry! More than once! Loved it all over again!

Reread July 27, 2021
Nothing to add to my thoughts below, except I upped the rating to 5 Stars. I always love the personal sides of the stories!

August 26, 2015
*4+ Stars*

I always know when I start a book in this series, that it is going to be good, but this one was especially good! I loved seeing a vulnerable side to Roarke and loved Eve's response as well. This story was very satisfying and the narration was wonderful as well!

4.75 stars