Off the Bookshelf: SECRETS IN DEATH, by JD Robb

Admit it, we've all wanted to take someone who has spread gossip about us and, at the very least, give them a face-plant somewhere messy and publicly humiliating. Gossips are the lowest of the low, worse than murderers, in a lot of ways. Shakespeare got it right when one character wailed about the destruction of his reputation. The suffering of a mortal wound either heals or it ends with death, but when your reputation has been shredded, it's hard to make it stop. Especially in the modern age of social media.

Dallas is on the scene -- as in, catching the victim's body as she bleeds out in a fancy bar -- when Larinda Mars, a notorious gossip reporter dies. It's natural that Dallas should take it a little personally that someone got slashed almost under her nose. She knows she saw the murderer, but identifying him or her is going to take some work because Mars had a lot of potential victims in her radar, including Dallas and those closest to her. But Mars' worst attacks weren't even public. She was a blackmailer, and making a very hefty profit from threatening to expose everyone's worst secrets and private pain. So who exactly did Mars push to the breaking point?

Another captivating jaunt into the future of New York homicide investigations, and all the complex personalities and relationships that just keep growing and changing in the In Death series. Can't wait until the next book comes out. I'm #91 in the queue at the library for DARK IN DEATH ... which doesn't come out until next year!