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In Death #31.5 & 33.5

Chaos in Death, and, Possession in Death

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Chaos in Death
When eye witness testimony paints the killer as a green-skinned monster with swollen red eyes and goblin ears, even Eve Dallas is shaken. But as she gets closer, the trail suggests something far more disturbing - someone is playing with science...

Possession in Death
After a Russian woman whispers her dying words to Eve Dallas, strange things begin to happen. Unable to concentrate on anything, Eve realises that in order to reclaim her mind, she must find the woman's great-granddaughter - one of a string of young missing girls forgotten, or ignored, by all.

291 pages, Paperback

First published May 9, 2013

57 people are currently reading
621 people want to read

About the author

J.D. Robb

177 books35.3k followers
J.D. Robb is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling In Death series and the pseudonym for #1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts. The futuristic suspense series stars Eve Dallas, a New York City police lieutenant with a dark past. Initially conceived as a trilogy, readers clamored for more of Eve and the mysterious Roarke. Stolen in Death (St. Martin's Press, February 2026) will be the 62nd entry in the series.

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5 stars
422 (59%)
4 stars
187 (26%)
3 stars
78 (10%)
2 stars
16 (2%)
1 star
7 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
Profile Image for Katerina.
612 reviews65 followers
January 14, 2025
Chaos in Death follows the events of New York to Dallas with a minor time lapse.

Eve is back in New York, and with Peabody, catch a new case, and as their investigation progresses, it gets weirder and weirder... especially when an eyewitness comes forward and describes the perpetrator. The results Eve receives from the lab confuse more than clear things up.
The first victims are well liked, and it's difficult to find a motive for their murder amongst a select group of suspects.
Charles and Louise make an appearance in a kind of double date with Eve and Roarke, and I wish J.D. Robb elaborated a bit more despite it being a short story.
Interesting and fast-paced, quite enjoyable!



Possession in Death follows the events of Indulgence in Death, and I have to take back my complaint that the author left out the garden party since it's the opening scene of this short story.

Eve gets mixed up in a case while leaving the garden party to drive father Lopez to his church and weird things start happening to her after she promises a dying woman to help find her granddaughter who disappeared some time ago!

I had a good laugh when Eve discovers she can speak Russian, and it was intriguing as a case despite the supernatural bits.
Profile Image for Sarah.
3,358 reviews1,236 followers
March 23, 2023
This book contains two novellas in the In Death Series, Chaos in Death (book 33.5) and Possession in Death (book 31.5).

Possession in Death :

Possession In Death is a novella available either as an individual ebook, or, as a bind up in print or ebook, that also includes the novella Chaos in Death. I read it as part of the bind up but I'm reviewing both stories separately as I'm reading the whole In Death series in order and these stories don't follow each other chronologically.

This story picks up immediately after the end of Indulgence in Death, we even get to see Eve hosting the barbecue she was arranging to cheer up Morris, but the case is a brand new one. When a dying woman begs Eve to find her missing granddaughter Eve finds herself making a promise that she might not be able to keep.

I love that the novellas in this series are a little more on the paranormal end of the spectrum, we've had possible ghosts and demons before and usually there's a plausible explanation but here we see a rather convincing case of possession. I'm keeping this review deliberately vague but it was another fab instalment to the series, I'm so glad I decided not to skip the novellas because they're always such fun to read.

Chaos in Death :

Chaos In Death is a novella available either as an individual ebook, or, as a bind up in print or ebook, that also includes the novella Possession in Death. I read it as part of the bind up but I'm reviewing both stories separately as I'm reading the whole In Death series in order and these stories don't follow each other chronologically.

Three people have been brutally murdered and of course Eve and Peabody are on the case ready to catch the murderer. The slight snag is that their only witness has described a monster right out of a horror story as the killer. Eve is sure they must be skilled with make up and prosthetics but the question is why would they disguise themselves that way? Aww the killing spree continues and the killer seems to be devolving Eve is in a race against time to find them.

What I love most about these novellas is that they're always a little bit weird and creepy. They have all the characters I love, plenty of suspense and action but the answers are never completely straightforward which always throws Eve for a loop as she's very much a black and white kind of person who if she can't see it then she doesn't believe it. This was another great instalment that left me ready to dive into the next book.

1st read - November 2019
2nd read - November 2021
3rd read - March 2023
246 reviews3 followers
December 22, 2017
Earlier, clear and intriguing Robb. Two shorter stories takingclose relationships and exploring the nexus which might be cause or result in multiple offbeat murders. Here envy or great loss. The 2nd tale involves some traditional Romany mystery and occult skills through the medium of an elderly and otherwise ordinar grwat grandmother, dealt with both sympathetically, up close and personal. In both, of course, the nature of the wondrous and symbiotic marriage shared by Dallas and Roarke is the foil to the stark policing and attendant professions sharing the inestigative tasks at hand - psychologist, priest, surgeon and empathetic pathologist.
A good read indeed.
Profile Image for Deborah Gebhardt.
892 reviews5 followers
April 22, 2019
The two novellas were originally published in anthologies with multiple authors. They deal with the weird and paranormal. I didn't enjoy any of the anthology novellas as well as the full-length novels in the series.
Chaos in Death is a take on Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. A murder is out there enjoying his work and leaving messages to that effect, and Eve Dallas is called in on the case.
Possession in Death - following a party at Rourke's and her home, Eve is dropping a friend off when she sees an old wounded woman walking on the street. So starts Eve's case to solve her murder and find her great-granddaughter, to fulfill a promise she didn't exactly know she was making.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Sarah Bell.
67 reviews1 follower
March 17, 2023
This short novella features the dead reaching out and speaking to Eve through a disturbing serial killer’s victims. The creepy, sad murderer dreams of his one and only love who was tragically lost. In the end, Eve must trust herself to solve the murder through any means necessary, including means she doesn’t even believe in herself.

I gave this novella 2 stars because I’m personally not a fan of the horror-type novellas in the series. I’m very excited to move on to the next book, Treachery in death. (Countdown to NY to Dallas!)
Profile Image for Jeri L. Moseley.
863 reviews7 followers
February 6, 2020
They just keep getting better and better! This is my all time, numero uno, favorite series! I own and have read or am in the process of reading every book in this series. From Naked in Death when you get sucked into Eve's raw and gritty world and then teased with Roarke's world of glitz and glam to every heartbreaking crime after, they are all marvelous. I devour every word and I'm not ashamed or embarrassed to admit that I reread the series twice a year every new book is published.
Profile Image for rivka.
906 reviews
February 28, 2022
2.5 stars

The shorts are often much weirder and less tightly-plotted than the novels. What both of these have is lice little details that continue plot threads from earlier novels. So the promised BBQ, healing from injuries, etc.

Worth reading for In Death completists, but not nearly on par with the novels.
Profile Image for Evelyn.
1,566 reviews3 followers
January 1, 2017
POSSESSION IN DEATH # 39 --- these 2 books are in one. I began reading Chaos in Death # 42 but realized I need to read 40 and 41 first. Possession in Death is very good. Wait until you read what Eve goes through and Roarke is not really that surprised.
Profile Image for Carrie.
256 reviews9 followers
February 22, 2018
I can see why this was a 'half' book. It had some supernatural components that don't always go along with Eve's character. She becomes possessed by a Romany grandmother that was murdered while looking for her missing great-granddaughter. It was a quick, short read.
Profile Image for Tanya Richards.
9 reviews2 followers
June 12, 2022
Possession very good and believable, scary for Eve seeing victims in front of her face rather than in her head and was nice to see the BBQ event. 4 stars

Chaos was weird, seemed rushed and far fetched but glad to see the healing Eve is going through after scrap with McQueen. 3 stars
Profile Image for Hope.
41 reviews7 followers
August 29, 2020
Chaos in Death was very good and interesting to read but Possession in Death was soooooo boring.
Profile Image for Cathy P.
1,788 reviews9 followers
December 16, 2020
Will update full review again. My audible reviews didn't cross over for some reason
Profile Image for Wendy.
1,478 reviews6 followers
September 28, 2021
Loved this book...Love Eve and Roarke and their friends.
Profile Image for booksofAhu.
287 reviews39 followers
November 17, 2015
two novellas in one book.
I already read the first story (chaos in death) in another book (The Unquiet), but reading second time was not boring.

The second story (possession in death) is the main reason I gave 4*
I like the mystic part of it. I would love to read another book with mysticism in it.

The issue with this novellas are story ends very quickly. they have all the elements of story but at the end it sums up very quickly.
I read them when I don't have enough time to read a whole novel.
76 reviews2 followers
Read
April 11, 2015
I completely am in love with this series! My only regret is that I can't find them all at my Libraries that I have access to! Specifically I'm looking for them in Audio books as I'm in my car a lot of the time in the day. I have one in my car, and I have a different one I listen to in my bedroom!
2,063 reviews7 followers
July 14, 2016
I really enjoyed these two stories. In one Eve Dallas and her usual crew must find the laughing, dancing devil that brutally murdered three recovering addicts. In the second an old, dying woman gets a promise from Eve to find her missing granddaughter.
Profile Image for James Hutchinson.
16 reviews
October 1, 2013
It seemed to me that the author had a strange writing style, found myself rereading sentences several times to make sense of things, enjoyable nonetheless.
Profile Image for Deirdre.
2,030 reviews82 followers
November 22, 2016
Two Eve Dallas stories with a hint of supernatural. Chaos in Death channels Jeckyl and Hyde with a touch of Green Goblin and Possession in Death has a ghostly echo
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews

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