Review by johnafair (2007-01-22)
This is the least pleasant of the In Death series to date as Eve Dallas and her partner, Peabody, have to try and find out why an apparently perfect family were slaughtered in their beds, right down to the children and the live-in housekeeper. Almost all the family - the youngest child, a nine year old girl, on an unauthorised night time raid on the fridge sees the invaders arrive and hides away.

The invaders, seeing her best friend in her bed, did not know until later that they hadn't made a clean sweep, but once they did, it becomes a race between the killers and Eve's people to see whether the killers can be apprehended before they make the clean sweep.

This is a powerful study of how one's background can affect your current actions as Eve and Rourke do their damnedest to make sure that Nixie is not left to the uncaring system that had so affected their own early lives. Dallas, in particular is badly affected by flashbacks as she recalls her own father and the way he met his end.