Devoted in Death, by J.D. Robb

Devoted in Death is the 41st installment of J.D. Robb's futuristic mystery/suspense “In Death” series, and—unsurprisingly—things are getting pretty damn stale. There are a couple of nice moments in this book, but 99% of it is the literary equivalent of a filler episode.

In Devoted in Death, NYPD Luitentant Eve Dallas faces off with a pair of sadistic lovers on a cross-country murder spree. Dallas is brought in when the tortured body of a New York cellist is found, and the stakes shoot up when another victim disappears. Dallas and her team are very aware that time is against them: the killers are getting more ambitious, and their victims can only survive their “creativity” for so long.

Look, if you've got some spare time and cash lying around, and you're already invested in these characters, Devoted in Death is... well, still kind of a waste, actually. There's no mystery (it's clear who the murderers are from the first chapter) and almost no interpersonal drama (and what little there is mostly takes place off-screen), which leaves readers with a mixture of banal police procedural and Robb's unfortunate predilection for torture-porn scenes. I'm not saying there weren't blips of mild entertainment, but they are few and far between, and even longtime fans of this series will be fine skipping this installment.