Book #33 was Origin in Death, the 21st book in J.D. Robb’s In Death series. The back of the book reads:

Set in 2059 in New York City, the number-one bestselling In Death series has given fans a searing glimpse into near-future law and order. Now, as scientists work to expand the limits of technology, Detective Eve Dallas tracks the cunning, cold-blooded killer of a father and son.

A pioneer of modern reconstructive and cosmetic surgery, Dr. Wilfred B. Icove, is found dead in his office-murdered in a chillingly efficient manner: one swift stab to the heart. Struck by the immaculate condition of the crime scene, Dallas suspects a professional killing. Security disks show a stunningly beautiful woman calmly entering and leaving the building-the good doctor’s final appointment.

Known as “Dr. Perfect,” the saintly Icove devoted his life to his family and his work. His record is clean. Too clean for Dallas. She knows he was hiding something and suspects that his son-and successor-knows what it is. Then, like father, like son, the young Dr. Icove is killed . . . with the same deadly precision.

But who is the mystery woman-and what was her relationship with the good doctors? While her husband, Roarke, works behind the scenes, Dallas follows her darkest instincts into the Icoves’ pasts. What she discovers are men driven to create perfection-playing fast and loose with the laws of nature, the limits of science, and the morals of humanity.

Book count: 33
Pages in book: 352
Page count: 13,357
Words in book: 100,799
Word count: 3,781,929

Book #34 was Memory in Death, the 22nd book in J.D. Robb’s In Death series. The back of the book reads:

Eve Dallas is one tough cop. She’s got no problem dealing with a holiday reveler in a red suit who plunges thirty-seven stories and gives new meaning to the term “sidewalk Santa.” But when she gets back to the station and Trudy Lombard shows up, it’s all Eve can do to hold it together. Instantly, she’s thrown back into the past, to the days when she was a vulnerable, traumatized girl-trapped in foster care with the twisted woman who now sits in front of her, smiling.

Trudy claims she just wanted to see how Eve was doing. But Eve’s husband, Roarke, suspects otherwise-and his suspicions prove correct when Trudy arrives at his office, demanding money in exchange for keeping the ugly details of his wife’s childhood a secret. Barely restraining himself, Roarke shows her the door-and makes it clear that she’d be wise to get out of New York and never bother him or his wife again.

But just a few days later, Trudy’s found on the floor of her hotel room, a mess of bruises and blood. A cop to the core, Eve is determined to solve the case, if only for the sake of Trudy’s bereaved son. Unfortunately, Eve is not the only one to have suffered at this woman’s hands, and she and Roarke will follow a circuitous, dangerous path to find out who turned this victimizer into a victim.

Book count: 34
Pages in book: 352
Page count: 13,709
Words in book: 105,517
Word count: 3,887,446

Book #35 was Seeing a Large Cat, the 9th book in Elizabeth Peters’ Amelia Peabody series. The back of the book reads:

“Stay away from tomb Twenty-A!” says an ominous message delivered by an unseen hand. The year is 1903, the place is Cairo, and with the new century, everything is changing for Amelia Peabody – except her affinity for danger. Headed for an archaeological dig in the awesome Valley of the Kings, she hopes the desert will yield up its secrets. Instead it will produce a macabre puzzle of murder, passion, and cruel deceit. Besides the warning about the tomb – which only makes it more intriguing to Amelia and her sexy if irascible husband, Emerson – Amelia finds Egypt spinning with demands that join like the threads of her destiny. A request for help comes from an old friend whose husband has fallen for a spiritualist…a plea arrives from an expatriate Civil War colonel with a pretty daughter threatened by an unknown enemy…and a special headache is bestowed by her son Ramses, grown from a precocious child to a teenager, who strikes out with his cousin David and Amelia’s beautiful ward Nefret toward an adventure that could turn a mother’s hair white… Even though her famous premonitions are telling her that trouble lies ahead, Amelia dreams of a large cat, an Egyptian sign of good luck. And when tomb Twenty-A finally reveals its secret, Amelia will need all the luck she can garner, and her detective skills, to keep those dearest to her from death…or an equally undesirable fate.

Book count: 35
Pages in book: 432
Page count: 14,141
Words in book: 128,028
Word count: 4,015,474

1,000,000 words surpassed — 2/2/06
2,000,000 words surpassed — 2/14/06
10,000 pages surpassed — 3/10/06
3,000,000 words surpassed — 3/16/06
4,000,000 words surpassed — 4/3/06