Lieutenant Eve Dallas

Few authors of women's action-adventure fiction are able to create female heroes as likable and tough as Nora Roberts' Lieutenant Eve Dallas, lead character in her "in Death" series of futuristic detective novels. Robert's writes her "in Death" series under the pseudomym of J.D. Robb, giving her books that old-school feeling like her books were written by a cranky former cop with a few too many stories left to tell.

Detective Dallas is a New York Detective in the year 2050 or so, when society has gone completely techno and junk food is available only through the black market. Her government now pays stay-at-home parents a salary, prostitution is regulated by the government and cars can drive on autopilot. Many parts of Dallas' world sound perfect but evne i her futuristic new York uptopia there is stil no shortage of crime.

Dallas works out of homicide and has made a name for herself in the stil male-dominated world of police work through her tough, non-nonsense Dirty Harry style of crime fighting. No matter how rough she must get to track her suspect, she manages to keep her investigation on the right side of the law, never risking a conviction.

Traditional feminists may sneer at Dallas' masculine habits, dress and attitude. Women have been fighitng for years to get equal treatment with men but resent feeling as though they must take on masculine habits just to keep up. But Robb's heroine, while one of the boys, has a feminine side that creeps out from time to time. Dallas is every bit the bad-ass modern heroine the contemporary action-adventure fands demand. She weilds her high tech weapons with fierce flair, can hold her own in a hand-to-hand fight and run down her opponents like a linebacker. But she can be caring, sensible and brilliant all at the same time.

Robb's Eve Dallas will appeal largely to female readers, but there are plenty of strong male characters, car chases and explosions to hook anyone's inner action hero. Robb has created, in Eve Dallas, a character with a careful blend of old-fashioned femininity, Die-Hard style ass-kicking and cunning smarts that fights until she wins. With over 25 "in Death" books to her credit, local Maryland girl Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb has created a lasting character that, thankfully, is showing no signs of retiring any time soon.