Silent Night

As I have the whole collection of j.d. robb IN DEATH series her work is well known and loved, but I found the additional stories by new (to me) authors of interest and enjoyment.

j d robb is great

A 2004 Australian film that won many awards in its native country. A very emotionally troubled teenager named Heidi embarks on a series of repeated heartbreaks that eradicate her soul and her sense of stability in Australia. Raised in a fatherless home, Heidi is preyed upon by her single mother's boyfriend, and when caught in an embrace she runs away from home. Wayward and tortured, she goes through a drifter's life in a vain attempt to find love.

It is rather misleading to have Robb's name listed prominently on the cover and have the book listed with her as the author. This is a Christmas anthology of four short stories by four authors. Robb's story is the last of the four. It is an enjoyable book--the first story by Claire Cross something that could appear on Lifetime Channel involving a hapless Christmas elf who falls in love with a mortal. The second involves a divorced mother of a young boy, who in his wanderings discovers a drunken man passed out on their Vermont lawn two days before Christmas. The third reunites a former Navy Seal, now FBI agent with his former fiancé, a girl from an affluent family who is now working with abused women and children in his former wrong side of the tracks neighborhood. And lastly, Dalles and Rourke find their first Christmas Day together disrupted by the discovery of the nude, abused corpse of a judge, thrown onto center ice in Rockefeller Plaza. The body shows all the earmarks of a crazed killer caught by Dalles and imprisoned off-planet for life three years ago. Needless to say the discovery is soon followed by confirmation that the murderer has escaped and returned to NYC to seek revenge upon all involved in his apprehension, most especially Dalles, herself.Needless to say, while I found the first story cute and the middle ones mildly interesting, it was the futuristic tale of 2058 NYC that was most riveting.

I began reading the anthologies because of J.D. Robb's "In Death" series. Each anthology has a story-in-sequence which advances some element of the basic thread of information about Lt Eve Dallas, NYPSD. Each offering in this volume is unique and they are all very well written. This particular edition is also unique in my collection as it is an actual paperback book rather than an e-edition as nearly all of my books are these days. I love books, the look, the feel and, although I have to reacquaint myself with reading with a lamp on, it took little effort to jump right in. Besides, I have to have something to read while my e-reader is charging!One thing I noticed immediately: rather than lead off with the J.D. Robb story, "Midnight In Death", this collection puts all three stories first. The other artists are Susan Plunkett, Dee Holmes, and Claire Cross. The stories are all page turners. I don't know whose idea it was to team J.D. with other equally talented writers but if her name is the one that draws you don't cheat yourself by not reading the other tales, especially the ones in "Silent Night".