This review was written by Liz. This story was nominated in the Best Romance Novella category.

The summary:     

Eve and Rourke return to investigate a series of murders connected to a brilliant young surgeon in Chaos in Death.

And here is Liz's review:

While I enjoy In Death the shorts are inconsistent. Roberts / Robb has to craft a novella that stands alone, works with a theme and sets up the next book in the series. It's not easy.

Chaos In Death occurs between New York To Dallas ( A | BN | K | S) and Celebrity In Death ( A | BN | K | S). Robb gives Eve (and the readers) a chance to transition back to the normal pace of the series and she is in top form here.

While musing on the public image of a butterfly Eve reflects:

“People don’t think about that because they get distracted by the wings. I always wonder if they have teeth. They must have tiny, sharp little teeth”

In one sentence she encapsulates why Eve Dallas is different. The fun of the In Death series is wandering through the beautiful things looking for teeth.  Peabody is as excited by the upcoming film as she is frustrated by missing clues Eve spots effortlessly. 

Eve's first set of victims are recovering addicts. In keeping with the In Death theme of hope in the face of darkness, each of the three appeared to be on the brink of a better life. This is a sensitive handling of addiction recovery. Each suspect has been affected by and works with addiction. While the ending is classic, and therefore likely for the reader to have predicted, enough misdirections are present to keep the mystery fresh.

CiD allows Eve to deal with the events of NYTD in a compact way without bogging the characters down in unfinished business.  The slightly paranormal aspects of the anthologies don't always mesh well with the fact-based world of Eve Dallas but in this case they fit perfectly with today's headlines. (If CiD had come out a year later, I'd wonder if bath salts were involved.)

With an excellent use of the secondary characters and an interesting murder to solve, Chaos In Death is one of the best of the series shorts. 

“A minus?” Both insult and sulk piped through Peabody’s voice. “I want A plus.”

Sorry, Peabody.  I think it's me.

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