Thankless in Death

Apart from references to such things as advanced robots and “vids” (the new name for theatrical movies), 2060 New York City is indistinguishable from present-day Gotham in bestseller Robb’s 38th full-length Eve Dallas thriller (after 2013’s Calculated in Death). In addition, nothing in the cookie-cutter plot couldn’t have happened in the present or near past. On impulse, 26-year-old Jerald Reinhold, an unemployed loser, stabs his mother, Barbara, to death in his parents’ Manhattan apartment, where he waits until his father, Carl, comes home so he can bludgeon Carl with a baseball bat. Lt. Eve Dallas, of the New York Police and Security Department, gets on Reinhold’s trail, but the savvy veteran makes a rookie mistake by not warning a clear target of Reinhold’s rage that she could be the next victim. Eve also has trouble assessing her quarry. At one point she calls Reinhold “a fucking moron,” then adds “he’s cannier than I gave him credit for initially.” Readers will have to judge for themselves. Agent: Amy Berkower, Writers House. (Sept.)