This week, we roast some of the dumbest Goodreads reviews of Bonded in Death—complete with ChatGPT-generated comebacks and code names for cranky reviewers. We rant about trigger warnings, explain (again) what a police procedural is, and wonder why people keep reading books they clearly hate. Also: Summerset’s a badass, Roarke’s still rich, and we’re still annoyed.

This week, we give you Part 2 of our review of "Bonded in Death." In this part, the plan comes together and after a few mishaps (where Eve gets shot AT, not shot), the NYPSD finally captures Conrad Potter.

Speaking of Conrad Potter, he is going to go down in "Podcast in Death" history as one of our least favorite villains. Among other things, he's a bigoted wanker, and a privileged fuck, and we really hate him.

Some great moments here, including Eve and Roarke dismantling a bomb, and the whole crew (and Roarke) breaking into Conrad Potter's home to save a child he had kidnapped (Potter is the absolute worst). Potter calling Eve the "C" word, and earning a kidney punch from Roarke.

The book is aptly named because we see how Summerset and the rest of "The Twelve" had formed such a tight bond. BUT...is this the book where Eve and Summerset finally bond??

It's finally here! We're finally reviewing "Bonded in Death"! And we had so much to say about it, we had to turn this into a Two Part Review.

The theme of this book is "Trust," and trust us, it's a very, very, dense book. We learn so much about Summerset's background (and Eve does too, once she finally gets around to talking to him!), and the case itself it pretty complicated. Although, our killer in this one is pretty basic. He's essentially a sexist, bigoted ass hat, who does some really horrible things. This is why the end of the book was so very satisfying.

A LOT of touching moments in this book, and a LOT of really funny moments. The book is going to be on the list of our favorites of the whole series.

But, again, this is Part 1, so, we cover the first 12 chapters, learn a lot about Summerset's past, and figure out a bunch of things about the killer in order to move on to the second part, which is finally taking him down.

Look, we know that most...if not all...billionaires today are horrible humans. And right now in the world of fiction, and most specifically Romance fiction, people are starting to call for the end of the "Billionaire Hero" trope.

We are here to make the case that Roarke is a different kind of billionaire. One that, while he occasionally does things that we're not happy about, he's the kind of person that real life billionaires should strive to be like.

So, in this episode, we talk about all of the ways that Roarke uses his billions to help people and make the world a better place.

If you listened to last week's episode where we Reviewed the Reviews of "Brotherhood in Death," you know that AJ swore that the next episode was going to be titled: "Eve Doesn't Weep!" and here it is!

There were two reviews in particular that prompted this episode:

"Eve is a whiney cry bit*h crying on EVERYONES shoulders. Really?"

and...

"Eve has been very stand offish, not playful- except with Rourke-, definitely DOES NOT WEEP!"

In fact, she weeps a lot. And we talk about all of the times it happens, because we're just that petty.

This is a LONG one listeners! Apparently, reviewers had a LOT to say about this book, and we had a LOT to say about the reviews.

This is a topic that was suggested by listener and Facebook Group member Betsy. She suggested we talk about "All the ways that Roarke is old-fashioned."

It's actually one of the things I think we all love about him. From his love of actual books and artwork to his love of Irish culture, language and family, to his love of classic videos and games. He's a traditional kind of guy.

We go off topic a lot in this one, especially when we talk about Summerset, who we are sure has a difficult time being discreet in a house where Eve and Roarke pretty much have sex anywhere they decide to.

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"Brotherhood in Death" is at it's core, a book about change. And we all know how much Eve hates change. But, unfortunately for her, Roarke wants her to change her office, and that sparks an argument. The main case is really a hard read, but it's probably not a stretch to say that everyone involved in those crimes, the perpetrators and victims were profoundly changed due to the crimes that were committed. Trueheart changes from an officer to a detective. So lots of change here.

This is such a great read, and a lot of that is because we love Dennis Mira and this book contains a lot of really great Dennis Mira moments. Most specifically his moments with Eve, all of which are so sweet, even when Eve is questioning him about his cousin's murder.

There's also plenty of really great funny moments here, most specifically the creepy doll room, and Eve telling Peabody to "Put the dicks in the box with the asses" and Peabody answering, "You know what's going to happen with a penis and two asses in the same box, right?"

Overall, a great book, and one of our favorites.

In this episode of Podcast in Death, we specifically look at some of the motives that our killers have had in this series and discuss whether or not we feel they are justified. TO BE CLEAR: There is never a good reason to kill someone! BUT, there could be circumstances that might make it more understandable. Because this episode went a bit long, we look at books from "Naked" to "Imitation," and will discuss other books of the series at another time.

Also, this episode starts off with a completely different subject: The Credits system in the "In Death" world, and how it might work.

In this episode we talk about the POV that starts each book in the series and what it might say about each book. Among the things we discover by doing this episode is that Eve is often annoyed when a book starts with her POV. Also, so many of these books are about women getting revenge.