Naked in Death (In Death, #1)

by J.D. Robb

She was young for her rank, barely thirty, with wide brown eyes that had never had a chance to be naive. Her doe-brown hair was cropped short, for convenience rather than style, but suited her triangular face with its razor-edge cheekbones and slight dent in the chin. She was tall, rangy, with a tendency to look thin, but Feeney knew there were solid muscles beneath the leather jacket. More, there was a brain, and a heart.

I didn’t work with Nora when Naked in Death came out in 1995, but Eve Dallas reeled me in from the first page. I’ve waited for every book since with impatient, baited breath. Nora tells the how story of a dark, difficult female homicide cop showed up in her head one day, completely out of the blue. Stymied, she flopped on her bed and said, “You’re interesting, but what am I going to do with you?” About four years later, she agreed to take on the JD Robb pseudonym only if she could write something different and bring that dark, difficult Eve Dallas to readers. I love this early description Eve. And the hints to the heart she tried so hard to hide.