Podcast in Death

It’s time once again to Review the Reviews, and this time Glory in Death is on trial.And wow. People have feelings about early-series Roarke.We start at the bottom of the Goodreads barrel with reviewers calling Roarke toxic, controlling, boundary-stomping, and desperately in need of therapy. And… okay. We’ve criticized plenty of Early Roarke Behavior ourselves. But AJ and Tara dig into something these reviews often miss: both Eve and Roarke are traumatized people who learned completely opposite survival strategies.Eve survived by telling herself: Don’t need anyone. Don’t let anyone too close.Roarke survived by deciding: If I want something, I grab on and don’t let go.Put those two people in love for the first time and, congratulations, you have Glory in Death.From there, the reviews somehow get even wilder.We meet readers who are horrified that Eve is beautiful, thin, successful, and yet somehow still has the audacity to be traumatized. Someone informs us that we're all “disgusting horny morons” for finding Roarke attractive. Several people are shocked—SHOCKED—that a book written by Nora Roberts contains romance and sex.Friends. Google was available.Then we meet a gentleman with sixteen hundred reviews, thirteen followers, and one really impressive vocabulary word who would like Nora Roberts to know that he has some concerns about her verisimilitude.Yes, he uses it twice.No, Tara is not impressed.We also tackle complaints about the futuristic setting, Nora's infamous head-hopping, Eve's police work, sex scenes that apparently contain an unrealistic number of orgasms, and one reviewer who thinks the series would make much more sense if Roarke eventually turned out to be a mastermind serial killer.Sir.This may not be the series for you.Things improve considerably once we hit the four- and five-star reviews, where readers finally start appreciating what makes this series work: Eve and Roarke figuring out how to love each other, the growing cast of Peabody, Nadine, Mira and Feeney, solid mysteries, snark, romance, and—of course—the absolute brilliance of audiobook narrator Susan Ericksen.And then we find perhaps the ultimate Roarke review.Forget the murder. Forget the investigation. Forget all those pesky details.This reviewer would simply like to discuss:“Perfection personified. A wet dream of a man.”Panties: apparently gone.Finally, we have some Podcast Business! Listener Sally proposes an Ultimate In Death New York City Tour, complete with Cop Central coffee, an Eve-and-Peabody murder mystery, Does Roarke Own This?, Galahad Easter eggs, the Down and Dirty, and enough Roarke money to make the whole thing happen.Tara is, unsurprisingly, ready to go to New York.AJ has never been.We may need to fix that.Also in this episode:DNFed? Did not finished? Whatever. Apparently we're making words now.“Show us on the doll where Eve hurt you.”Early Roarke: therapy recommended.Why being attracted to a fictional man is apparently now a moral failing.The difference between criticizing problematic behavior and completely misreading a scene.Why your personal relationship boundaries are not automatically Eve Dallas's relationship boundaries.Eve has childhood trauma. She's not just “moody.”“If I want a sex book, I'll look for one.”Straight people fucking again.Verisimilitude.No, seriously: verisimilitude.Why setting a book in the future does not require hitting readers over the head with FUTURE! every five minutes.Susan Ericksen remains flawless.Roarke had sex with women before Eve. Everyone remain calm.No, he does not need to buy a new mansion every time he gets a new girlfriend.Somerset is still a shithead. (At least at this point in the series.)The rare and beautiful five-star review that reminds us why we actually love doing this.And finally: “I can't stop thinking about Roarke.”Honestly?Same.

We’re heading back to Glory in Death, and this time Tara is along for the ride!There is A LOT happening in the second In Death book: we meet Peabody! We meet Crack! We meet Chief Tibble! We get more Nadine! Mavis meets Summerset! Eve tells Roarke she loves him! Roarke proposes! And somewhere in there, Eve is also supposed to solve a series of murders.We start by trying to figure out the actual theme of this book. Is it strong, opinionated women pissing men off? Is it parents doing questionable things in an attempt to protect their children? Is it simply Eve and Roarke desperately needing to learn how to communicate? Honestly... it’s not not all three.And speaking of Roarke: Tara has some feelings.Roarke starts the book strong—quietly divesting himself of his illegal holdings because he knows they could eventually cause problems for Eve—and then somehow arrives at: “Here’s an enormous diamond. Commit to me immediately or we’re done.”Sir.We love you.That is not how you handle this.Of course, Eve isn’t exactly winning awards for healthy communication either, so we spend a good portion of this episode watching two emotionally damaged, stubborn people slowly figure out how relationships work. Fortunately, they eventually get there—with the Giant’s Tear, Eve’s replica apartment/office, an “I love you,” some office-floor makeup sex, and finally... a marriage proposal.Meanwhile, there’s an actual murderer running around New York killing powerful women.We talk about Eve and Nadine’s growing friendship, the introduction of Peabody and just how quickly she makes an impression, Crack trying to recruit Eve for the Down and Dirty, Mira opening up about her own childhood, Whitney struggling with his personal connection to the case, and Mavis immediately charming Summerset while helping Eve get spectacularly drunk.Also: CJ Morse remains the absolute worst.By the end, Nadine has been kidnapped, Eve has once again discovered that using herself as bait is a TERRIBLE PLAN, Roarke is fighting a murderer in a park, and somehow all of this ends with:“Hey, while we’re here covered in blood and waiting for the medics... wanna get married?”Romance!We also ask one of the most important unanswered questions in Glory in Death:When Eve, Roarke AND Chief Tibble suddenly leave the giant party at Roarke’s mansion... who the hell is hosting?Our money is on Mavis and Summerset.And frankly, we would attend that party.Tara: Peabody — who makes an immediate impression, does excellent police work, finds crucial evidence and proves almost instantly that she is destined for much more than traffic duty.AJ: Nadine — who helps Eve throughout the investigation, gets unwillingly drafted into the role of murder bait, survives CJ Morse, and, most importantly, never has to know that Eve seriously considered eating the fruit in her AutoChef.We love you, Nadine. And Eve did not eat your fruit. That’s friendship.

What would YOUR Urban Wars code name be?After Bonded in Death revealed the Urban Wars code names Fox, Hound, and Lightning, we knew there was only one responsible thing to do:Give everybody else one.But instead of simply sitting around trying to come up with clever names ourselves, AJ did the most AJ thing possible and built an entire Urban Wars Code Name Generator.Tara knew what the general topic of the episode was.She did not know what AJ had planned.And thus began an hour-plus journey through the personalities, skills, quirks, strengths, weaknesses, and questionable life choices of our favorite In Death characters.We run some of our favorite characters through the generator, choosing traits from categories like Leadership & Strategy, Personality & Vibe, Skills & Talents, Combat & Toughness, Team Role, and Weaknesses & Flaws.Among those getting the Urban Wars treatment:Roarke, Peabody, Mavis, Baxter, Trueheart, Mira, McNab, Jenkinson, Morris, Reo, Nadine, Jake, and, of course, Eve.Some results are hilarious. Some are weirdly perfect. And some require us to hit DECLASSIFY again because...no.Along the way, we discuss:Whether Roarke can actually be overconfident if he's good at everythingRoarke vs. THE GRILLPeabody's storytelling and snack obsessionWhy Mavis is tiny but terrifyingTrueheart's approximately six million forms of anxietyMcNab's questionable stealth abilitiesJenkinson's ties and general legend statusWhy Morris needs to GO ON VACATIONNadine's inability to leave a good story aloneEve's stubbornness, workaholism, and coffee addictionAnd why nobody somehow qualified for Villain EnergyObviously, after assigning code names to the characters, AJ and Tara have to run themselves through the generator.Tara gets called charismatic and doesn't know how to handle it.AJ gets called a "weird genius" and is perfectly fine with that.And somehow the generator produces results for both of us that are alarmingly accurate.We're not spoiling ANY of the final code names here. You'll have to listen.We welcome our newest Patreon supporter, Julie! Thank you!Next up, we're talking about Nora Roberts' Glory, followed soon after by the release of Fury in Death. AJ has also posted links on InDeath.net to the Fury prologue/first chapter—including the audio excerpt.Try the Find Your Urban Wars Code Name generator for yourself—or run your favorite In Death character through it—and tell us what you get.And remember:If you hate your code name...Just hit Declassify again.

This week AJ and Tara dive headfirst into the wild, weird, and occasionally unhinged world of Goodreads reviews for the very first In Death novel. From "this book is liberal propaganda" to "Roarke is my new literary boyfriend," nothing—and no reviewer—is safe.Tara bravely soldiers through the episode despite feeling under the weather, while AJ becomes increasingly fascinated (and occasionally horrified) by people who apparently hate romance...while reading romance.⭐ The one-star reviews that made us question humanity.📚 "Authors" reviewing Nora Roberts...and why AJ immediately checked their reviews.☕ The greatest romantic gesture in the series? (Hint: It's coffee.)💰 Why Roarke continues to ruin fictional men for everyone else.😂 The many, many people confused that a police procedural contains...police procedures.🐈 An unexpected debate over whether Galahad is "cat enough."🎧 Yet another reminder that Susan Ericksen is an absolute audiobook legend.❤️ Readers who started skeptical...and accidentally fell completely in love with the series."People need to stop reading stuff they don't like."Simple. Elegant. Surprisingly difficult for Goodreads.A huge thank you to everyone who's been sending messages and catching up on the back catalog!Special thanks to:Monica, for letting us know we're still producing "pee your pants funny" episodes.Lisa, whose SpeakPipe suggestion inspired a future episode all about every time Eve and Roarke feed the squad (because apparently food is one of Roarke's love languages).Tara has officially started Glory in Death, so Book Two is on the horizon...assuming AJ gets caught up.No promises.🎧 Join the conversation!Visit InDeath.net, where Patreon members can log in using their Patreon account and automatically gain access to the patrons-only forum.You can also find us on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, or leave us a SpeakPipe message through PodcastInDeath.com.Until next time...Keep reading, keep laughing...and maybe stay away from the Goodreads one-star section. 😉

Thirty years after Naked in Death first hit shelves (and after 300+ podcast episodes), Podcast in Deaeth returns to the book that started it all. Is it everything we remembered? Does Roarke still sweep us off our feet? Did we discover new layers after reading the entire series?But perhaps most importantly, we now believe there needs to be:Justice for Sharon de Blass!!📖 Going back to Naked in Death with 60+ books worth of perspective❤️ First impressions of baby Eve, baby Roarke, and why they're both so different from who they become☕ Why coffee might actually be the greatest love language in the series🐈 The glorious first appearance of Galahad, who immediately begins stealing the show🕵️ Looking at the book's surprisingly deep themes of trauma, survival, and found family🏛️ Why Naked in Death was political from page one (and always has been)😂 AJ and Tara accidentally spend an alarming amount of time discussing how awkward Sharon's trip to Mexico with Roarke must have been📞 AJ discovers Roarke committed the ultimate crime... calling Eve at midnight🎯 Commander Whitney reminds everyone why he's always been one of the best characters in the series📚 A fresh appreciation for Nora Roberts' long-game storytelling and character growth✨ Revisiting the origins of Eve and Roarke's relationship with completely new eyes.✨ Realizing that many of Eve's "later-book quirks" actually make perfect sense when viewed through the lens of her trauma.✨ Watching Galahad literally save the day... and earn Tara's Commendation.✨ Charles Monroe continues proving that he's one of the MVPs of the entire series.✨ AJ develops an unexpected campaign for Justice for Sharon, while Tara wonders if Roarke accidentally traumatized her simply by not sleeping with her.(We promise this somehow becomes an actual conversation.)🏅 Tara: Galahad (because heroes deserve recognition... and somebody still owes him caviar.)🏅 AJ: Charles Monroe, whose memory—and sister's safe deposit box—ultimately cracks the case.We're not leaving Naked in Death just yet...Next time, AJ and Tara dive into one of everyone's favorite traditions:⭐ Reviewing the reviews of Naked in Death.Prepare yourselves. The internet has opinions.📞 Leave us a voicemail or text: 205-4-ROARKE (205-476-2753)💻 Join the discussion at InDeath.net❤️ Support the show on Patreon for bonus content and early access.As always...Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next time!