Lt. Eve Dallas (Treachery in Death, 2011, etc.) returns to her troubled roots when she goes up against a sex killer with a taste for tweens and a personal interest in her.

Twelve years after his life sentence for raping and imprisoning several of his alleged 27 victims, Isaac McQueen, aka the Collector, is on the loose again. After making his escape from Rikers Island, he returns to his old apartment, takes the couple renting it hostage and demands that Tray Schuster convey the news of his escape to Eve in person within an hour on pain of serious damage to his girlfriend Julie Kopeski. Tray's anguished visit is only the first of many episodes in which McQueen threatens the officer, who put him away, with a lingering, X-rated death. But he's not content simply to taunt his old nemesis. Sylvia Prentiss, the drug addict who helped him escape, outfits his latest torture chamber in faraway Dallas and helps stock it with fresh meat. McQueen's first victim is a familiar face: rape counselor Melinda Jones, who'd already been rescued once before from his clutches. His second is Darlie Morgansten, a 13-year-old who's more in his sexual line. Together with her megamillionaire husband Roarke, Eve flies to the city that gave her her name to confront both the monster she caged once before and the prison-house of her own tormenting childhood memories.

Roarke and his attendant computer wizards make so many vague, conveniently timed discoveries that the detection is never convincing. But the cat-and-mouse suspense when Eve and McQueen go up against each other is intense. 

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Eve Dallas is back, tracking a monstrous pedophile who's escaped from New York's Rikers Island prison and is intent on continuing his abduction of youngsters while getting even with Eve—years ago, she put him in jail. This 33rd novel in the mega-best-selling "In Death" series is the first not to use that phrase in the title (vs. the subtitle). A no-brainer.

Bestseller Robb breaks with one tradition in her 34th Eve Dallas novel (after Treachery in Death); "Death" is not part of the title, but otherwise she delivers precisely the kind of rapid-fire thrust and parry action fans expect from the near-future New York Police and Security Dept. homicide lieutenant. Serial rapist/murderer Isaac McQueen (aka "the Collector"), the first major bust of Dallas's when she was a rookie, escapes from New York City's Rikers Island prison complex 12 years into his life sentence and immediately resumes his depredations on young girls. McQueen uses a hostage to force Dallas to travel to Dallas, Tex., the site of her own horrific childhood, where he has prepared surprises for her. Working with the FBI, the Dallas PSD, and husband Roarke, Dallas leads the effort to recapture the wily McQueen. The deadly chess game between Dallas and McQueen plays out against multiple backgrounds, including shocking revelations from Dallas's past and the complex, passionate relationship of Roarke and Dallas. (Sept.)