History Literature / InDeath

* ClosetGeek: Borderline case with Roarke, who reads '[[InsistentTerminology graphic novels]]' and knows about IronMan, Franchise/{{Batman}} and other fandoms, but still acts like a sophisticated businessman, in contrast to every other tech-savvy character who is a full out geek or nerd.

* PopCulturalOsmosisFailure: Eve has very little awareness of or interest in pop culture, to the point that her failure to recognize references is a minor RunningGag. Presumably this comes from her lack of a childhood, extreme focus on police work, and general isolation from most other people prior to getting involved with Roarke. Among many other things, she's shown to be ignorant of IronMan, Franchise/{{Batman}}, Film/JamesBond, Franchise/StarTrek and other fandoms mentioned throughout the books (''Calculated In Death'' has a bunch of these), and rarely recognizes the contemporary celebrities of the setting. She also has no ear for music, a fact Lampshaded and lamented on by [[TheMentor Feeney]] who often reacts with disgust at her lack of knowledge in it. She ''is'' well-informed on famous murder cases (Like UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper) and will study up on a particular piece of pop culture if it's relevant to a case she's working.

* EnergyWeapon: "Blasters" are the new personal defense sidearms on the streets of New York, rendering "antique" firearms obsolete, though with firearms universally banned in the setting, you won't see many outside of collections anyways. The main advantage of blasters over firearms is their ability to adjust their lethality (from having an effect similar to a real-life stun gun or taser to being able to put a hole through someone's skull at range), and as such have all but replaced firearms in every market, from civilian to military. Laser weapons also make an appearance, essentially serving the role as the blaster's heavier cousins.[[labelnote:*]]Don't bother mentioning how all these capabilities kind of renders banning firearms moot in the first place.[[/labelnote]]

* TranquilFury: Roarke is the champion of this trope within the series; Eve is actually more scared when he gets like this than when his anger shows in his actions. Compounded by the fact that his natural demeanor is calm, polite, and openly friendly, and that the change from genuine affability to "he-is-about-to-literally-murder-you-and-burn-everything-you-hold-dear-without-even-breaking-his-smile" is so subtle that victims of his wrath don't even realize the danger until he's holding them by the throat or [[ToThePain gleefully describing the ways he will destroy them.]]

* RealWomenDontWearDresses: In-Universe. Dallas, a firm tomboy with little use for or interest in fashion or makeup, is torn between disdain and admiration of more traditionally feminine women. She perpetually disapproves uncomfortably of Peabody's ventures into personalizing her style with "girlie" touches like fashionable clothes and bright colors, which Eve finds inappropriate for a cop, and she's alternately impressed and baffled by Dr. Mira's classical ProperLady style. The series itself doesn't really take Dallas' side, though.

* EnergyWeapon: "Blasters" are the new personal defense sidearms on the streets of New York, rendering "antique" firearms obsolete, though with firearms universally banned in the setting, you won't see many outside of collections anyways. The main advantage of blasters over firearms is their ability to adjust their lethality (from having an effect similar to a real-life stun gun or taser to being able to put a hole through someone's skull at range), and as such have all but replaced firearms in every market, from civilian to military. Laser weapons also make an appearance, essentially serving the role as the blaster's heavier cousins.[[labelnote:*]]Don't bother mentioning how all these capabilities kind of renders banning firearms moot in the first place.[[labelnote]]

* DirectedEnergyWeapon: "Blasters" are the new personal defense sidearms on the streets of New York, rendering "antique" firearms obsolete, though with firearms universally banned in the setting, you won't see many outside of collections anyways. The main advantage of blasters over firearms is their ability to adjust their lethality (from having an effect similar to a real-life stun gun or taser to being able to put a hole through someone's skull at range), and as such have all but replaced firearms in every market, from civilian to military.

* {{Deconstruction}}: The setting reads as a deconstruction of the idea of a social utopia. Guns are banned, the food industry is more tightly regulated to the point that animal cruelty is virtually unheard of, welfare is better than ever, and prostitution and certain recreational drugs are legalized and regulated. On the other hand, none of this comes without cost: the regulation of the food industry and increased environmental protections mean that meats and animal products are all but entirely replaced by soy and vegetable substitutes for most people; real meat, real coffee, and real tobacco are rare and expensive luxuries, and personal freedoms are more restricted and monitored. And even with all of this, people are still murdered by psychopaths, terrorists still blow up monuments, and there is still a dark, nasty underbelly to society where the forgotten and out-of-luck citizens waste away from the world. Basically, despite all the "progressive" changes to the world, its still the same world that it is now and nowhere near the utopia that it is supposed to be.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/in_death.JPG]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Not pictured: ''Remember When'', the novellas, or anything after ''Golden'']]

* BadDreams: Eve, often dragged out of them by Roarke. Earlier in the series, certain things will make her lapse into flashback when awake. In later books, as she's begun to resolve some of her DarkAndTroubledPast, the flashbacks are less common and the dreams have gradually evolved from panic-inducing nightmares into calmer and semi-lucid, if no less unsettling, dream conversations with the victim(s) and sometimes the perps of the investigation du jour.
** Roarke himself finds himself in these situations as well, though not as often as Eve. Most of the nightmares tend to occur when a case reminds him of (or directly involves) his past or his father, though these dreams don't usually garner as dramatic a reaction as Eve's. The dreams that ''do'' get that reaction, however, are the ones that involve seeing Eve hurt or killed.
** In ''Leverage in Death'' Eve slips back into a more severe nightmare, bad enough that she wakes screaming in panic and it takes a bit for Roarke to snap her out of it. This particular dream features Richard Troy and Patrick Roarke in the roles of the novel's [=UNSUBs=], forcing Roarke into a suicide bomb vest about to detonate in the midst of a gathering of everyone else Eve cares about - it shakes her so badly that she makes Roarke promise he will never comply with such a scheme before she an even begin to calm down.

[[caption-width-right:350:Not pictured: ''Remember When'' and the novellas]]

* NatureVersusNurture: Eve and Roarke both struggle on and off with the question of how much of their monstrous parents and generally horrible childhoods they carry with them, as they have both genes ''and'' environment working against them. The series overall seems to take the stance that while genetics and upbringing can both shape a person, the real answer is often "neither" - for every perp who has it InTheBlood or was warped by the circumstances and events of their lives, there's one who had perfectly normal, caring parents who did their best to raise their child right, with no history of trauma, abuse, or hereditary mental instability. Some people, it seems, are simply born monsters... but by the same token, it's possible for a person to rise above horrific parents and childhood and make something better out of themselves.

* CyberPunk: In spades. [[FlyingCar Flying cars]], FutureSlang, RidiculouslyHumanRobots, [[FutureFoodIsArtificial soy-everything]], super computers, Fiction500 Mega Corps, VirtualReality...it's essentially Cyberpunk in all but name.

* HonestCorporateExecutive: [[OnlyOneName Roarke]] series is [[Fiction500 one of the wealthiest individuals in the world]], with corporate interests in all kinds of sectors. He started out as a thief and a black marketeer, but by the time the series starts he's gone fully legitimate (when his Eve asks, he remarks with tongue in cheek that he almost wishes he ''did'' still have some dirty business going so that he could give it all up for her sake). He treats his employees well and is quick to put a stop to any unethical shenanigans he discovers going on at the lower levels of his companies; in later books, he founds a shelter for victims of domestic abuse and makes sure that it stays well-funded and staffed by capable, caring people.

** ''Thankless in Death'' has Joe Klein, aka Asshole Joe, a smarmy, snarky real estate agent who hits on Peabody, ignores Eve's advice, and adamantly refuses to believe that one of his old buddies is an over-the-edge insane killer out to get him even when all evidence proves that he is. By the end of the book, he is kidnapped by said killer friend and tortured to the point of pissing himself. When Eve finally rescues him, he's sobbing and apologizing for not listening.

** The only ones who call Eve by her first name are Roarke and Dr. Mira.

* CyberPunk: In spades. [[FlyingCar Flying cars]], RidiculouslyHumanRobots, [[FutureFoodIsArtificial soy-everything]], super computers, Fiction500 Mega Corps, VirtualReality...it's essentially Cyberpunk in all but name.

** Several criminals in the novels have been abused by their parent(s). John Blue in ''Visions of Death'' was horrifically abused by his mother which ended up breaking him, Madeline Bullock in ''Born in Death'' groomed and sexually assaulted her son for deacdes which warped him, among others.

* AbusiveParents: In the backstory of both main characters, with the sole exception of [[spoiler: Roarke's real mother, who died soon after he was born.]]
** Also applies to Mavis's abusive mother. And several of the criminals.

** By comparison, [[spoiler:Willow Mackie]] in ''Apprentice in Death'' got a slightly later start, killing twenty-five people with a long-range tactical laser at the age of fifteen. [[spoiler:She eventually reveals that the killing spree was her idea, masterminded over the course of a year, with the intent of continuing into a hundred-victim mass shooting starting at her school. Even before that, she'd threatened her stepfather, seven-year-old half-brother, and several other people on numerous occasions, not to mention killing her half-brother's puppy by breaking its neck and throwing it out a third-story window to land at the boy's feet as he came home.]]

* DecliningPromotion: Lt. Dallas has, in the in-story span of two and a half years, solved so many spectacular cases that she's now a public celebrity, especially following the incredibly high-profile resolution of the Icove case in ''Origin in Death''. She's been offered a captaincy but declined on the grounds that while she could be a good captain, she's more useful in the field.

* BadassGrandpa: Pretty much everyone who actually participated on some level in the Urban Wars TookALevelInBadass. Some of them took more than one level and retained it better. Chief Tibble, Commander Whitney, Summerset and Feeney are notable examples, while the killer in [[spoiler: Creation In Death is a subversion,]] being said to avoid all the fighting and shown to be a coward in his old age.
* BadDreams / CatapultNightmare: Eve, often dragged out of them by Roarke. Earlier in the series, certain things will make her lapse into flashback when awake. In later books, as she's begun to resolve some of her DarkAndTroubledPast, the flashbacks are less common and the dreams have gradually evolved from panic-inducing nightmares into calmer and semi-lucid, if no less unsettling, dream conversations with the victim(s) and sometimes the perps of the investigation du jour.

* AdjectiveAnimalAlehouse: The Blue Squirrel (where the food and drinks are highly suspect) pops up occasionally, although Mavis no longer works there. Eve seems to prefer the Down and Dirty for surreptitious meetings due to her friendship with Crack.