Salvation in Death Hardcover - 2008

by J. D. Robb

Ancient church rituals meet cutting-edgecrime solving in the latest novel in the#1 New York Times–bestselling seriesthat's 'Law & Order: SVU in the future'(Entertainment Weekly).

In the year 2060, sophisticated investigative tools can help catch akiller. But there are some questions even the most advanced technologiescannot answer.

Ridley Pearson has praised J. D. Robb's suspense as'taut' and 'nerve-jangling.' Her latest thriller sets anew standard for suspense, as the priest at a Catholicfuneral mass brings the chalice to his lips and falls over dead.

When Detective Lieutenant Eve Dallas confirms that theconsecrated wine contained potassium cyanide, she's determinedto solve the murder of Father Miguel Flores, despite herdiscomfort with her surroundings. It's not the bodegas andpawnshops of East Harlem that bother her, though the neighborhoodis a long way from the stone mansion she shares withher billionaire husband, Roarke. It's all that holiness flyingaround at St. Christobal's that makes her uneasy.

A search of the victim's sparsely furnished room reveals little except for a carefully hidden religious medal with a mysteriousinscription, and a couple of underlined Bible passages. Theautopsy reveals more: faint scars of knife wounds, a removedtattoo and evidence of plastic surgery, suggesting that'Father Flores' may not have been the man his parishioners hadthought. Now, as Eve pieces together clues that hint at gangconnections and a deeply personal act of revenge, she believesshe's making progress on the case. Until a second murder infront of an even larger crowd of worshippers knocks the wholeinvestigation sideways. And Eve is left to figure out who committedthese unholy acts and why.