In Death characters
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article describes the major and minor characters of J.D. Robb's In Death series, excepting the two protagonists, Lt. Eve Dallas and her husband, Roarke.
Contents |
[edit] Major Characters
Consists of characters that typically appear in every book, whether their role be large or small, and are part of Eve's immediate circle of acquaintances.
[edit] Captain Ryan Feeney
First Appearance: Naked in Death
Eve's former partner and the man who trained her, picking her up as an officer after finding her working a crime scene. He no longer works Homicide, but is instead the captain of the Electronics Detection Division (EDD).
Feeney is a very relaxed man who likes to dress a bit messily and loves his electronics; that said, he is a very devoted cop and is apparently a good father and husband, though the books have never introduced any members of his family. He also has grandchildren.
His former partner is murdered in Ceremony in Death, a book during which Eve personally investigates the murder; he's godparent to the man's granddaughter, who is murdered during the course of the book. Feeney fights with and temporarily breaks the relationship between himself and Eve; however, Roarke intervenes and tells Feeney that the man who raped Eve as a child was her own father, and that subsequently, Feeney is her true father figure.
As Eve's trainer and former partner for years, there are a great deal of Eve's personal and professional habits that mimic Feeney greatly. Roarke has observed on several occasions (in Divided in Death and others) that Eve really is just like Feeney.
Feeney is one of the few who knows that Homeland Security covered up Richard Troy's murder by his daughter's hand.
[edit] Officer (Detective) Delia Peabody
First Appearance: Glory in Death
Temporary aide in Glory and Immortal in Death
Permanent aide: from Rapture in Death through to Imitation
Partner: Promotion to Detective, first grade in Imitation in Death.
Delia comes from a family of "Free-agers", which is a fictional extension of the New Age movement from the 1980's. Her family is very peaceful and pacifistic, but Delia prefers exercising justice her way - the police way. She is a very responsible and sober police officer, but as the books continue, her personality relaxes.
She dates Charles Monroe for a little while starting in Holiday in Death, but she quickly realizes that she thinks of him as a brother. Nevertheless, they continue to go out on excursions together, confusing Ian McNab.
Ian McNab is Delia's lover; she meets and clashes with him in his introduction during Vengeance in Death. They don't start dating (in reality, having repetitive one-night stands) until Loyalty in Death, break them off in Betrayal in Death, and officially start dating in Seduction in Death. He meets her parents in Reunion in Death, they move in together and sign a lease in Visions in Death, and she visits his family in Memory in Death (they live in Scotland). She's very happy with him, but as she states to Eve once, she's fine living with him - marriage is very far off.
Eve tells Delia about her childhood and subsequent act of patricide in Visions in Death.
[edit] Mavis Freestone
First Appearance: Naked in Death
Mavis is Eve's best and first real friend. The two met when Eve was an officer; since Eve was promoted to Detective when she was twenty-three, they met sometime between 2046 and 2051. Eve arrested her for being a con artist - several times - and the two ended up becoming friends. Eve often describes her as "Pixy-like" which leads the reader to beleave that Mavis is a tiny woman, who radically changes her appearance at will. From totally different lengths, styles, and colors of hair, to eye color. She is often described wearing jewel colors, and bouncing around. Her favorate expressions are "mag" as in magnificent, and "iced" meaning "cool". She also tends to expand on these when she is excited.
Mavis is originally a singer in a club called the Blue Squirrel; it's a very low-class club where Mavis mostly performs half-naked. Throughout the books, Mavis eventually gets a recording deal (she actually is quite talented) through one of Roarke's recording companies, and becomes essentially a huge rock star.
She has an almost innocent personality and wants nothing but the best for Eve, and always knows what suits her. She knows about Eve's past, but it is not clear as to whether or not she knows that Eve killed her father. Nevertheless, Mavis would probably agree with the course of action.
Mavis tells Eve she is pregnant in Purity in Death with Leonardo's baby; she marries him in the delivery room during Born in Death. Summerset offers his wifes ring, which he wore on a chain around his neck, until they can find another ring. Summerset also gives her away.
Shortly after, Mavis gives birth to her and Leonardo's baby girl, named Bella Eve, with the nickname Belle.
[edit] Detective Ian McNab
First Appearance: Vengeance in Death
Of a Scottish background, Ian is a detective in Feeney's Electronics Detection Division. He is particularly good with computers (though not as good as Roarke). Ian is also a very flashy dresser, wearing bright, spangly clothes and earrings.
His relationship with Delia Peabody is a rocky one; unaware that Delia is not actually dating Charles Monroe, he is incredibly jealous. His jealousy peaks in Betrayal in Death, and he fights with Peabody and breaks off his relationship with her. The two are subsequently miserable for several books. After having a fight with Charles Monroe, however, in Seduction in Death, he gets back together with her.
In "Purity" Ian was temporarily paralyzed and tried to break up with Peabody to spare her being stuck with an invalid. She told him where he could put that idea and remained with him, his body waking up again shortly after. He then confessed that he loved her, not wanting to miss the chance to tell her again.
Delia does eventually tell him that she never had a romance with Charles, but not until Divided in Death, enjoying his suffering.
They are living together by then in the same building as Mavis and Leonardo. Both have stated that they love the other.
[edit] Dr. Charlotte Mira
First Appearance: Naked in Death
She is the resident psychologist for the NYPSD; Eve comments in Naked that she could have opened a much more profitable private practice, but Charlotte wanted to work with the police.
Charlotte tells Eve that she was raped as a child by her step-father, when she was twelve, and the rapes went on for several years before she finally admitted it. Her mother divorced her step-father and remarried Charlotte's birth father, and her parents are happy to this day.
Charlotte has several children with her husband, Dennis Mira, and has grandchildren as well.
Eve loves Charlotte very much but has not admitted it to her face; nevertheless, Charlotte knows. Charlotte thinks of Eve as a daughter, and throughout the series has gotten Eve to open up to her more and more.
Charlotte knows all about Eve's life: her rapes as a child, her killing of her father in self-defense, her subsequent foster care, subsequent time spent in juvenile detention, her reasons for being a police officer, and her life with Roarke. Charlotte is also one of the few that knows that Homeland Security had a hand in covering up Eve's father's death.
Charlotte and Eve experienced some conflict of interest in Origin in Death, since Charlotte was friends with the true villain of the book and deeply disturbed by the man's experiments with human lives.
[edit] Summerset
First Appearance: Naked in Death
He is technically Roarke's butler. However, he used to go by the name Basil back in Ireland in the 2030's; he had a daughter named Marlena. During the series' fictional "Urban Wars", a time of urban unrest, Summerset served as a medical aide, also working with the title doctor from Origin in Death.
When Roarke was ten, he met Summerset and Marlena, age eight. They ran cons together; shortly after, Summerset found Roarke half-beaten to death in an alley (by Patrick Roarke); he saved him and nursed him back to health.[1] Roarke mentions (somewhat conflictingly) later that he thought Summerset was a mark and tried to steal from him, but as Roarke said, Summerset "dissuaded him of that notion".[2]
Patrick Roarke turned up shortly later dead in an alley, stabbed in the chest and robbed of all money and valuables - supposedly a victim of a mugging. It was a surprisingly innocuous death for a very dangerous man, and so Eve realizes in Portrait in Death that it is Summerset who in fact killed Patrick. Summerset says that he did it because he had "children to protect."[3] Roarke does not know as of the most recent book and likely will not find out.
When Roarke was sixteen, he was running a small gambling ring; his competitors wanted him gone. They figured that the best way to deliver the message was through Marlena, Summerset's fourteen-year old daughter. The six men raped, murdered, and mutilated Marlena, then dumped her body on their doorstep. In revenge, Roarke slowly hunted those six men over the next decade, the basis for the plot in Vengeance in Death. When he comes to the U.S., he brings Summerset with him, asking Summerset to become his home's caretaker. He thinks of Summerset as a father.
In that same book, Eve realizes why Summerset does not like her: she says to him that he has always wanted someone like Marlena for Roarke, a sweet and innocent young girl - something Eve has never been. Summerset had not realized the basis of his dislike, and is guilt-stricken over it.
In the end of Vengeance, Eve takes a hit meant for Summerset. On several occasions, the two have had meaningful conversations over their only common interest, Roarke.
Summerset is also very fond of Mavis and tends to cater to whatever she wants on her visits; he treats her very affectionately. Ironically, this may be some indication that Mavis was like Marlena. He gives Mavis away at her wedding, and loans her his own wife's ring, further indication a father-like feeling for Mavis.
[edit] Commander Jack Whitney
First Appearance: Naked in Death
Eve's police commander; her immediate superior, since Eve oddly enough does not have a captain. He is one of the series' few black characters in the series, along with the Chief of the NYPSD, Tibble. Eve respects him greatly.
Whitney is a solid, excellent police officer, and for the most part is always on Eve's side. He recognizes that she is an excellent cop; if it weren't for the fact that Eve prefers being on the street, he would have promoted her to captain herself. However, that and the fact that other high-ranking members of the police force frown on her marriage to Roarke have made the promotion more difficult, something he does not agree with.
He does not aspire to higher political positions than the one he has; he also has been a cop as long as Feeney has, and the two were apparently in uniform together (covered in Ceremony).
He has at least one daughter (a lawyer) with his wife, Anna Whitney, and endures stoically the parties his wife loves throwing. He also states in 'Reunion' that he has more than one son as well as grandchildren in another book.
In Glory, the victim was a good friend of his, a prosecutor back from when he was on the streets. Because the prime suspects are the victim's family, he is very uncomfortable with the case and subsequently oversteps his boundaries, damaging his relationship with Eve. The relationship is still shaky in Immortal. However, when he finds out that Eve killed her father while he was raping her, he immediately tells Eve that their police department will not open the matter, effectively shutting down the possibility of Eve being indicted for murder. He also knows that Homeland Security left Eve to be raped by Richard Troy, and subsequently murder him.
Surprising Eve, he gets along very well with Roarke and the two have, on rare occasions, smoked and drank together.
[edit] Nadine Furst
First Appearance: Naked in Death
Channel 75 news reporter, on the crime beat. She is the intended victim of the murders in Glory in Death, but Eve is the one who stops the murders. She is an extremely ambitious reporter, but an ethical one; she will always protect her source (in these books, the source is Eve) and follows her cases thoroughly.
When Eve's badge is taken away from her in Conspiracy in Death, Nadine rallies to the cause with a bombardment of news clips and stories, playing on the news, about the heroic cop's badge unjustly taken away. She and Eve are good friends, and the only reporter Eve truly trusts to properly deliver select media information. In fact, Nadine was at Eve's bachelorette party.
Nadine actually acquires her own show in Memory in Death as a direct result of the story Eve fed her in Origin in Death, which being a case about human cloning, garnered Nadine immense publicity worldwide. There is also a TV movie being made about Nadine and the case; Nadine teasingly asks Eve (but half-seriously) if they can film some of the interviews at Eve's house, to which she answers emphatically no.
Eve often observes throughout the series that Nadine wears high heels, which Nadine says she wears to make her legs look good. Additionally, Nadine often bribes her way into Eve's office with large amounts of fudge and chocolate brownies.
[edit] Detective David Baxter
First Appearance: Vengeance in Death Another detective from Eve's division, Homicide. A very able police officer without many extensive appearances until later in the series; enjoys teasing Eve about anything he can, usually relating to her relationship with Roarke and associated changes. Whenever Eve has a fairly large team for a big investigation, she brings Baxter in. He is a bachelor and and is described as being good looking; however, he has not been romantically tied to any particular person.
Was originally a member of the anti-crime division, but transferred over to Homicide well before his first appearance.
In Purity in Death, Eve urges Baxter to take Trueheart under his supervision, meaning that Trueheart serves him the same way Delia did Eve. He admits in rare moments that he's very fond of Trueheart.
Baxter (almost always referred to as such) is badly stunned in the end of Survivor in Death, but with no apparent lasting damage.
[edit] Minor Characters
Consists of characters who typically play small roles and will go many books without occurring again; however, they may play larger roles on the rare occasion.
[edit] Officer Troy Trueheart
First Appearance: Conspiracy in Death
The most naive character in the series; like his name, he is a young, honest, innocent, and enthusiastic young officer (he once thanks Eve for giving him the mission of standing outside in the cold all night long). He has a single mother whom he loves very much, and who makes a brief appearance in Witness in Death when he is badly injured (by other police officers) while chasing a suspect.
In Purity in Death, Trueheart is taken under by Baxter, who agrees to train him at Eve's request. In this same book, Trueheart discharges his stunner, which turns out to be the final step in killing a victim under attack by the villains of the novel. Trueheart is kidnapped in Portrait in Death by the murderer; he manages to stay conscious enough to give Eve and Baxter directions to his location.
Trueheart is well-liked by virtually everyone, except, ironically, the person whom he was working with when he is introduced to the series (who ends up being murdered).
[edit] Charles Monroe
First Appearance: Naked in Death
Charles is a licensed companion who is good friends with the first victim of the series, another LC. Eve is friends with him, although she mostly disapproves of his profession - in turn, he doesn't approve of hers.
He starts dating Delia Peabody in Holiday in Death, but after a very short time they quickly become good friends. However, Delia doesn't tell anyone about their friendship and for several books, all other characters think they're in a relationship.
In Seduction in Death, Charles Monroe meets Dr. Louise Dimatto and immediately falls in love with her. She has no problem with his profession and the two eventually move in together. Charles served as an informal sort of consultant in the same book.
[edit] Dr. Louise Dimatto
First Appearance: Conspiracy in Death
Louise is serving as a doctor in a clinic in the slums of Canal Street; she comes from a very rich family of important doctors, but rather than becoming an important doctor with a high salary, she works in the worst parts of NYC. Louise does have a trust that she lives on, and occasionally supplemented the clinic with her own cash.
She is a witness of sorts in Seduction in Death to a body being tossed off a balcony. In addition, she serves as an informal consultant and informer to Eve in this book, Reunion in Death, Origin in Death, and others; Eve also prefers her treatment to that of other doctors, so she treated Eve's wounds in Reunion.
Louise takes a large bribe from Eve for half a million to help her with the case, as Eve is not in possession of her badge at the time and it is technically illegal. The half million is for Louise's clinic; Eve finds out in Seduction that Louise actually received three million, the other 2.5 being on condition that she contract her services to a women and children's abuse shelter, Dochas. This clinic is of Roarke's founding, and Louise spends half her week there as of Portrait in Death.
[edit] Jamie (James) Lingstrom
First Appearance: Ceremony in Death
Jamie shows up as the god-nephew and sister of two of the victims in the book; he's a teenager that attempts to break into Eve and Roarke's home in order to express to them his desire to find the truth about what happened to his family. His computer skills are such that he actually makes it into the yard, though Roarke quickly catches him. Much to Roarke's annoyance, he snuck over the garden wall with the help of a modified portable gaming system, one that Roarke actually manufactures.
He hero-worships both Eve and Roarke. In the end of Ceremony in Death, Jamie kills the murderer of his sister with an athame; Eve takes the blame and pretends she did it in order to spare him from a murder trial.
In Purity in Death, Roarke brings him in as a technical assistant due to his very good computer and programming skills.
[edit] Galahad
First Appearance: Naked in Death
Eve's third victim is the owner of a cat; Eve takes the cat into custody. However, the victim's daughter is too distraught to take the cat, and Eve has it at her apartment, not knowing what to do with it. When the perpetrator of the book has Eve at gunpoint, the cat brushes past his leg, distracting him and giving Eve the leverage she needs to fight back. Eve thus names the cat Galahad, after the Arthurian Knight, because he was her knight in shining armor.
The cat is Eve's, Roarke's, and Summerset's pet; he is often fed by all of them and takes food as he pleases, and occasionally steals it. On occasion, Eve has had bad dreams from which she wakes up to find Galahad trying to wake and comfort her. When Nixie, the title character from Survivor in Death, stays at their home, she stays mostly with Galahad, as he comforts her.
Eve mentions later in Memory in Death that the cat has been spayed. The cat makes minor appearances in almost every book.
[edit] Anna Whitney
First Appearance: Naked in Death, but her first name is revealed in Glory in Death
Anna Whitney is the commander's wife; unlike her husband, she is white, although their interracial marriage has never been explicitly pointed out. They have several children together.
Anna mostly terrifies Eve because she is extremely put together, an extremely efficient hostess, and combined with her marriage to the commander, can highly intimidate Eve as well. That said, she is to all appearances a devoted wife and mother. In Glory, Eve finds out that she has given large amounts of cash to the top suspect because he was in gambling debt.
In Origin in Death, Commander Whitney specifically calls Eve because his wife has asked him to ask her to keep her plastic surgery details out of the case, a request with which Eve has no difficulty complying.
[edit] Dennis Mira
First Appearance: Reunion in Death
Dennis Mira is the husband of Dr. Charlotte Mira. He seems to be a very absent-minded fellow, walking around with his shirt buttons mismatched. However, he is a very kind man; Eve is very fond of him and finds it easy to talk to him. He is very nonthreatening to her; however, he is intelligent, and as Charlotte says, very good at separating what is good and evil.
Eve sees him in Memory in Death, and before she knows what's happening, she breaks down weeping. She is mostly sad because she wonders what a difference it would have made to her tragic life if she had had just one person like Dennis Mira who would have loved her (like a parent). Eve likes him very much and in the same book, buys him a scarf. He believes Eve to be a very determined and good person with a necessary dark streak in her that he respects.
[edit] Leonardo
First Appearance: Immortal in Death
Leonardo is a famous clothing designer and Mavis's husband, marrying her in Born in Death shortly before she delivers their daughter, Bella Eve. He is an enormous man, close to seven feet tall and possessing Native American heritage; however, he detests violence and is very peaceful. They currently live together in Eve's old apartment.
He designed Eve's wedding dress, and Eve is very fond of him and approves of him as a good match for Mavis.
[edit] Caroline Ewing (Caro)
First Appearance: Naked in Death
Roarke's administrator, nicknamed Caro; she is his right hand at his company. She is the mother of Reva Ewing, a former United States Secret Service agent who took a hit for the President of the United States.
Caro is an extremely efficient and capable woman; the only time she asks Roarke for his help is in Divided in Death, when her daughter is framed for murder. Other than that, she serves as his assistant, appearing briefly in many of the books.
[edit] Wilson Buckley (Crack)
First Appearance: Glory in Death
The owner and proprietor of a club known as the "Down and Dirty"; it's an extremely dirty and grimy club, but illegal activity is somewhat low. Crack, as he is referred to, becomes friends with Eve, though he originally propositions her for being a stripper in the club. After some initial meetings and moments where she'd pay him for information (in both Glory and Immortal), he occasionally helps her out by letting her have private meetings with other cops, informants, and Nadine Furst in one of his back rooms.
In Portrait in Death, his younger half-sister, a medical school student, is murdered; Eve takes him to the morgue to view her body, comforts him, and she and Roarke plant a tree for his sister in Central Park. After this, Crack says that she will never pay him for another favor again in Origin in Death.
Incidentally, Eve's bachelorette party is at Crack's club in Immortal in Death.
[edit] Richard and Elizabeth DeBlass
First Appearance: Naked in Death
Richard and Elizabeth DeBlass are lawyers, and Richard is the son of Senator Gerald DeBlass, who murdered their daughter, Sharon. Richard and Elizabeth were genuinely unaware that Sharon had been molested continually as a child by her grandfather, nor did they know that Richard's sister had suffered similarly.
In Vengeance in Death, Eve is delivered a message from the killer via a very young boy with a cat, who is abused by his mother and spends his time out on the streets. Roarke finds this information out, and arranges with Child Protective Services for the boy to be put into Richard and Elizabeth's home. They eventually adopt him.
They are seen again in Survivor in Death in the case of the child found in that book. Nixie Swisher had guardians, but after their own daughter's death, they refuse to take her in. Nixie's only remaining relatives are unsuitable; left out of options, Roarke and Eve again contact the DeBlasses, who come to talk to Nixie and take her into their custody. They are accompanied by the little boy from Vengeance.
Their current lives are in trying to give the two children they have adopted good lives and alleviate all of their tragedies.
[edit] Nonappearing Characters
These characters are for the most part deceased, but play an important role by figuring strongly into the minds of Eve and Roarke and may frequently show up in flashbacks or memories.
[edit] Richard Troy
First Appearance: Naked in Death
Richard Troy is Eve's biological father; from when she was about five or six, he began raping her, continuing until the night of his death when Eve was eight years old. Eve kills him with a kitchen knife while he is drunkenly raping her, in Dallas, Texas, but he breaks her arm during the process.
He is present in every single book, as he is always the spectre of Eve's nightmares. Typically, he appears in her nightmares to tell her that no matter how many people she finds justice for, there will always be more monsters like him, waiting to do more evil to innocents like the little girl she was.
His first name is revealed in Judgement in Death; his last name is found by Roarke in his file on Homeland Security Organization's files in Divided in Death. He was working as a kind of informer for HSO, despite the fact that he was a criminal with a minor child, Eve (at eight years old).
Richard Troy was raising Eve - who is definitely his biological child - with the intent of using her for child prostitution. Mira concludes and tells Eve in Reunion in Death that Troy was probably not a pedophile himself, but preferred adult women, something that Eve does vaguely remember. In Interlude in Death, Roarke realizes that his father, Patrick Roarke (see next) had business in Dallas, Texas, with Troy, the same week of Troy's death.
This business is fully realized in Divided in Death; Eve remembers her father telling her in Reunion that she was finally going to start working (or rather, being raped for her father's profit). That Patrick Roarke was there, with cash, on his own business, indicates that Troy was going to sell Eve to Patrick Roarke.
For the record, HSO was perfectly aware that Eve murdered Troy, but cleaned up the body and had the case unsolved, as they had themselves recommended she not be taken out of Troy's custody.
Troy also had business dealings with Max Ricker, the villain of Judgement in Death, and stole money from him. Ricker knew he had a daughter, but over twenty years later, does not make the connection between Troy and Eve.
Troy was under surveillance by the HSO the day he died. He was recorded as having returned to his hotel room at 2:00 a.m. in the morning; in Eve's memories, he begins beating and raping her immediately after his return, during which she kills him. Therefore his time and date of death is shortly after 2:00 a.m., May 13th, 2036.[4]
[edit] Patrick Roarke
First Appearance: has only been discussed, starting in Naked in Death
The father of Roarke. Patrick Roarke was a criminal who had the Irish police in his pocket, as he wielded some minor power. He came to the US in 2036 to ruin Max Ricker's gun-running operation in Atlanta, a situation in which he double-crossed Max Ricker and the police officers, who were paying him to be an informant.
Siobahn Brody ran away from him with their son when Roarke was a baby; upon her return, Patrick Roarke killed her and threw her in the river with the assistance of some friends. He then raised Roarke by having him steal throughout the day and bring back money to him.
With the information that Eve's father was going to start selling her in Dallas, it is to be concluded that Richard Troy was going to sell his daughter to Patrick Roarke.
According to Roarke, Patrick Roarke should have died in 2035 (when he was twelve), but there is a continuity error. See: Roarke. Going by information in Divided in Death, Patrick Roarke dies sometime in Ireland, 2036, at Summerset's hands.
Patrick Roarke leaves an uneasy legacy behind for Roarke with the experiences of a policeman named Skinner, who held Patrick (appropriately so) responsible for the death of thirteen police officers in an attempt to arrest Max Ricker. Decades later, Skinner has transferred the grudge to Roarke in Interlude in Death.
[edit] Siobahn Brody
First Appearance: Portrait in Death
The biological mother of Roarke and one of twins with Sinead Lannigan, Siobahn originally was from County Clare, part of a farming family. She came to Dublin at eighteen, hoping for the excitement of a city life. She met and was charmed by Patrick Roarke (see above), and bore his child out of wedlock. He abused her, but she repeatedly asked him to marry her, and in her social worker's words, give Roarke a true father.
She eventually ran away from Patrick and took her son with her to a shelter, but went back, believing she shouldn't take her son away from his father. Subsequently, Patrick Roarke beat her to death and threw her in the River Liffey. Patrick Roarke's real wife, Meg Roarke, then raised Roarke (abusively) until he was about five, whereupon she left.
Roarke resembles his father almost identically, but Siobahn's twin tells Roarke that he has inherited the shape of his eyes from his mother.
[edit] Stella
First Appearance: Judgement in Death; named in Imitation in Death
Stella is Eve's biological mother; the evidence for this is that Eve remembers seeing her own eyes reflected in her mother's face in a flashback in Imitation. Eve's mother was a prostitute and a drug addict; in addition, she was abusive. In the flashback, she finds Eve trying on her wigs and reacts badly, grabbing Eve by the hair and beating her. It is in fact Richard Troy that pulls the child away, telling Stella to instead "take a hit", promising her that this child will earn them a lot of money in subsequent years. Eve is about four years old in this flashback and had not yet been raped.
There is no evidence as to Stella's whereabouts or whether she is alive or dead.
