Survivor in Death

Survivor in Death (2005) by American author Nora Roberts follows inspector Eve Dallas as she brings three deranged killers to justice. Roberts, a bestselling romance writer, uses her pseudonym, J.D. Robb, when writing about crime. Survivor in Death is the twenty-third book of her in Death series, which currently stretches to fifty-nine books. Each book follows a case solved by police lieutenant Eve Dallas, a smart, brazen woman who does not suffer fools and who refuses to let her terrifying past define her.

Its themes include revenge, the meaning of family, and starting over.

Survivor in Death opens as Eve Dallas, the best homicide detective in New York City, looks at the cold, dead body of forty-two-year-old housekeeper Inga Snood. It is three a.m. in October, and Dallas is the first detective to respond to an Upper West Side apartment where an entire family appears to have been murdered.



It is odd that nothing of value was taken; no alarms were triggered, and none of the victims appear to have struggled before their throats were slit. Dallas finds the one survivor, nine-year-old Nixie Swisher, hiding upstairs. Nixie called 911 once the “shadows” appeared to leave. Sadly, her best friend, Linnie Dyson, was mistaken for Nixie and had her throat slit. First responders had assumed that the nine-year-old body they found was Nixie’s.

Once Dallas calms Nixie down and gains her trust, Dallas learns that the child can’t remember much. It was dark, not to mention extremely traumatic to overhear her entire family being murdered. Nixie escaped the killers because she went to the kitchen for a midnight ice cream. Though Nixie’s testimony is lackluster, fortunately, the year is 2059, so Dallas has more technologically advanced tools to help her find the murderer(s).

As she learns more about the morally sound Swishers, Dallas is puzzled as to who would want to murder such a harmless family. Grant Swisher, the father, a forty-year-old lawyer, often offered his services pro-bono to women who were trying to escape abusive relationships. The mother, thirty-eight-year-old Keelie Swisher, had the non-political profession vegetarian nutritionist. Who would harm such people? Moreover, who but a highly trained assassin could commit so many murders, leaving no trace. To move around efficiently in the house would require night-vision goggles.



The press picks up the story, calling it “The Swisher Case.” Nixie asks Dallas to promise to solve the case; Dallas promises. Peabody, Dallas’s trusted partner, tells her that the medical examiner found that there were at least two killers.

Through conversations with friends and colleagues, Dallas starts to see her own terrible childhood looming in the future for orphan Nixie. Wanting to protect the pre-teen, Dallas makes the unusual move of forcing Child Protection Services out of the case. Therefore, instead of entering foster care, Nixie stays with Dallas and her former-criminal-turned-good-guy husband, Roarke, who now happens to be a billionaire. Dallas knows the child will be far safer in the mansion with its plethora of high-tech security defenses, then a typical foster care home.

Then Meredith, the caseworker assigned to Nixie’s case, is found tortured and murdered. At the same time, two police officers that were guarding the scene of the crime are shot to death.



On the third day, Nixie and Dallas wake up early. Nixie accidentally finds Dallas’s “murder board,” a large board that has graphic photos of the Swisher family posted to it. Nixie cries out it is unfair Dallas should have photos of her family while she has none.

Peabody finds the names of several possible killers who have been impacted by Grant Swisher’s court cases: John Jay Donaldson, a retired sergeant from the Marine Corps; Victor Glick, an active Army colonel who lives in Brooklyn; and Roger Kirkendall, another retired Army soldier. With these names in hand, Dallas delegates leads to her team.

Dallas’s investigation shows that Roger Kirkendall had a long-held hatred toward Grant Swisher, who helped Kirkendall’s ex-wife, Dian Kirkendall, divorce him. Swisher asked Dr. Jaynene Brenegan to testify against Roger, which she did, a testimony that persuaded the judge to give full custody of their two children to Dian Kirkendall. She disappeared within days, along with her kids, protected by the secret service.



Through more interviews, Dallas discovers that a certain Jilly Isenberry was in the army with Roger Kirkendall and likely helped Roger gain knowledge of Swisher’s house. Dallas also rapidly pieces together that Roger and his cohort were likely responsible for a car bomb two years ago that killed the judge of Kirkendall’s custody case, along with his fourteen-year-old son, and the strangulation of Karin Duberry, a social worker involved in Kirkendall’s custody case.

Dallas wants to check sealed military records to confirm whether Jilly Isenberry and Roger Kirkendall served in Iraq together, but she faces stiff resistance from her superiors. She appeals to Roarke, whose tech savviness, former career as a criminal, and considerable finances, allow him to successfully break into CIA records. Roarke and Dallas learn that not only were Jilly and Roger in the military together, but they also have connections with several terrorist groups, including a Doomsday cult.

Meanwhile, Roarke and Dallas’s attempts to place Nixie with one of her distant relatives keep coming up a failure. Though it is weird to have a kid in the house, in truth, both of them like it.



Four days after the murder, Eve Dallas and her team set out to reexamine the case of the murdered judge and social worker. However, before she sets out, the alarm to the Swisher’s house is triggered. She races over to the Upper West Side. She finds the scene poorly guarded, and after yelling at a couple police officers, enters the property herself, weapon drawn.

In the locked car, Nixie calls Roarke to say the killers have drawn in Dallas and he should come soon. Dallas calls for backup, but none of her technology appears to be working. Dallas fires on one killer, disabling him, then fights hand-to-hand with Jilly Isenberry, whose neck snaps after Dallas throws her down the stairs. Roarke and many police storm the property, getting into a shootout with the remaining killer. They find Roger Kirkendall alive but injured in the kitchen. Then they raid Roger’s secret command center.

Dallas counsels Nixie that her house will never be the same, but what really matters is the memories of her family she carries with her all the time.