Podcast in Death

In this episode of Podcast in Death, We dive into another "We Review the Reviews" session. This time taking on Apprentice in Death and wow, do the one-star reviewers have thoughts. Is Roarke just a billionaire Mary Sue with too much access to NYPSD investigations? Is a laser rifle supposed to have recoil? And most importantly… is outrage over Nora calling a fictional school “Hillary Clinton High” the hill to die on?

We also make a big announcement: for the next three months, we’re taking a detour into Nora Roberts’ Chronicles of the One series! We’ve teased it before, but now we’re finally doing it—and yes, Tara will actually finish the series this time. (Fingers crossed.)

Highlights of this episode include:

• Rants about how Nora's fictional science doesn't match up with some people's view of Real Science.

• So many people really pissed about Roarke’s 10-minute miracle app that would be impossible for anyone to do, except now it can be done with ChatGPT.

• A laser-focused (pun intended) takedown of angry reviewers who just… really need to stop reading if they hate the books this much.

• A moment of appreciation for Susan Ericksen, aka Saint Susan of Ericksen, and her flawless narration.

In this episode we review "Apprentice in Death," where Willow Mackie is one of the absolute worst characters on the planet.

AJ had a theory about the theme that might sound a little random at first, but hear her out: the theme of this book is cold. And she has the receipts. There are literal mentions of “cold blood” everywhere and Feeney even says, “You can’t teach cold blood, Dallas.” But also, randomly, there’s a subplot about Eve owning the most elite ice cream shop in NYC (Because Roarke), and yes, the killers went there for caramel sundaes after murdering people. Feeney’s reaction? “Fucking cold. And I ain't talking ice cream.”

We love the scene where Eve consults with Lowenbaum at "The Dallas Palace," but we are sad when Lowenbaum later faces some really hard truths.

This is the book where Willow Mackie decides to execute a mass "Pew, Pew"-ing, and it just so happens to be at Madison Square Garden where Mavis is playing and Summerset took Roarke's tickets to go see her. Eve and Roarke are both panicked as they speed down to the scene. Many people are dead or injured but all of Eve and Roarke's people are fine and they are relieved. Eve is so relieved that she asks Summerset to make sure Dickie Berenski is okay. Is EVE okay??

This is also the book where we first meet Jake!! Nadine warns him Eve won’t recognize him. She doesn’t. He’s already calling her “Lois.” We love him.

After a very emotional and exhausting night, Eve and Roarke fight over whether or not Eve should question Summerset at that very moment. Roarke says no, Eve says yes. We have to say, we are siding with Eve on this one. We understand that Roarke loves his people and worries about them, but Eve and Summerset need to work things out on their own.

Also, this was a really interesting book to read right after reading "Bonded," as Summerset talks about having an "Urban Wars" flashback.

In this episode, because we just read "Bonded in Death," and got some more good information about some details of Summerset's involvement in the "Urban Wars," we thought that we would re-visit this topic, since the first time we talked about it way back on Episode #19, we were OFF topic more than we were ON topic.

We also talk about how like it or not, this series...and books in general ARE political, so politics are going to come up from time to time. We recognize that talking too much politics might lose us some listeners, but when it's relevant to a book, we are going to bring it up. We are hoping that the majority of our listeners understand this and will stick with us.

Anyway...we were both a bit distracted in this episode, but hopefully, it's still entertaining!

Hi Everyone! On this episode of Podcast in Death, it's our yearly talk with "In Death" Audiobook Narrator, Susan Ericksen!

This was such a fun show to do! We talk with Susan about (among other things) her recent trip to Italy, the Wikipedia page we created for her, the "In Death Bullpen Rap" that was written by listener Dana! Our listeners asked her a lot of really good questions, and made some really great comments. One of our favorite comments came from listener Pansy who told the story of how she realized that when Susan voices "Crack," she has been unintentionally channelling Pansy's Uncle Peety.

We had a really great time with Susan, and we hope you all have a great time listening. Looking forward to talking with Susan again in another year.

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.