Roarke
Encyclopedia
Roarke is a fictional character from the series In Death
. He is the husband of Lt. Eve Dallas
and together, they are the main characters of the futuristic (circa 2058 AD) romance-mystery series by J.D. Robb, pseudonym for NY Times best-selling author Nora Roberts
. A former career criminal, Roarke is the owner and CEO of Roarke Industries, an inter-planetary corporation that has made him one of the richest men in the world.
; in NYC, he is the CEO of Roarke Industries, and one of the richest men in the world, possibly the richest.
He owns an old mansion off of Central Park that he remodeled to his specifications with very high tech security. Also in the home is his own personal collection of firearm
s, which are illegal in 2058 unless one possesses a collector's license. Roarke also owns maces, sword
s, dagger
s, medieval armor, and other assorted weapons. He is quite skilled in electronics and can dismantle any type of security, lock, or coding, as well as hacking into any electronic database—including but not limited to the FBI, Interpol
, and Homeland Security
.
He convinces Eve to move in with him in Glory in Death
and then proposes at the end of the book. Roarke's house officially becomes a home once Eve moves in, and after this, Roarke is happiest at home rather than traveling. He also enjoys helping Eve with her cases, finding the role reversal quite entertaining.
Official Statistics
Eve's computer in Naked in Death actually lists his birth to be in 2023, making Roarke's apparent age 35, but as Roarke discovers in Portrait in Death
, his official record makes him one year older than he actually is. Therefore he is really 34. Additionally, October 6 is an estimate; apparently Roarke simply picked this date as he knew he was born in the first week of October, as he tells Delia.
Roarke has a conversation with Summerset that indicates that at one point in time, Roarke had wanted to get rid of his name, as he did not like being connected with his father. Summerset convinces him to keep it and make it his own, but as seen in the In Death
books, Roarke is only known as Roarke, a name that should be his surname
, and has no apparent given name.
. They are as follows:
His black hair is long enough that he can and has tied it back.
He wanted money because it gave him security, and makes no compunctions about enjoying its benefits. Roarke has a very nice mansion, tastefully but expensively decorated, particularly since Roarke has a fondness of antique furniture, old master paintings, and in general, anything with a past to it. This is, as Roarke dryly comments to Mira, because he has no real past of his own.
In addition, he can use the money to buy clothing (which he likes very much) for both himself and his wife. In particular, he enjoys dressing his fashion-unconscious wife, much to her distaste. Roarke also gives Eve as many gifts as he can possibly get away with, justifying it because he wants to make up for everything she was not given before. Some times he gets pissed off with Eve when she hides things from him or when she orders him not to do something or when she refuses to use his money.
When Eve is semi-living with him in Glory in Death
, Roarke decides to get rid of the last remaining illegal businesses he has out of a desire to not make her life difficult. His illegal activity is mostly restricted to conducting illegal searches if he feels it necessary, and occasionally carrying illegal weapons with him (only police officers are allowed to carry stunners, but he has several).
Roarke's greatest and most impossible desire is to take revenge for Eve, impossible because the perpetrator, her father, is already dead. Her nightmares cause him immense suffering because he knows that they will never fully go away, as her father can never truly be beaten. That said, he is given a minor chance at reprisal when he discovers that in Divided in Death that the Homeland Security
organization knew that Eve was with and being raped by her father, but instead recommended a course of nonaction. Roarke wants to hunt down and kill the people who made and complied with the order, but does not because Eve says she won't be able to handle it if he does. It is likely his largest concession to Eve.
Children are not likely to happen any time soon. Though Roarke has expressed a desire, the simple fact is that neither of them is ready.
, directly after the last and worst part of the series' fictional "Urban Wars", a period of unrest, violence, and corruption. Roarke believed his mother to be his father's wife, Meg Roarke, an abusive woman who lived with his father, Patrick Roarke and walked out on him when the young boy was six. In reality, his mother was an eighteen year-old woman named Siobhan Brody, who Patrick beat to death after she ran away with Roarke.
Roarke is ten when he first meets Summerset and Summerset's eight year old daughter, Marlena. The father and daughter typically run cons. Shortly after their meeting, according to Roarke's account in Immortal in Death
, Patrick beats Roarke almost to death and leaves him for dead. Summerset, who had medical training, saves and helps Roarke recover.
When Roarke is twelve, he finds out that his father has been murdered; he immediately heads down to the alley where the death supposedly occurred. Patrick Roarke is indeed dead, stabbed in the throat, an apparent victim of a mugging. Roarke checks his father's pockets and leaves.
It is revealed in Portrait in Death
that the killing was not random. In fact Summerset killed Patrick, a fact he confirms only to Eve, who has guessed it. As of Memory in Death, Roarke still does not know that Summerset killed Patrick. Summerset's motivation was to protect Roarke.
When Roarke is sixteen, his gambling operation is earning a very high profit, too high for a competing group. Marlena confesses her love to Roarke and offers herself to him; horrified, Roarke rejects her and sends her away, thinking she would go back to her room. Instead, Marlena leaves the house and is captured by the competing group, and six men rape and torture her until she dies. They then drop off her body at Summerset's doorstep in the morning. When Roarke and Summerset call the police, they discover that the police have been bought off and will not pursue the case. Roarke thus takes his own justice by murdering those six men over a three year period.
Roarke founds Roarke Industries in 2042, when he is (supposedly) nineteen years old. Presumably he must have immigrated to America by this point in time.
Further detailed information—at least in terms of years—is given throughout the books, revealing that Roarke worked as a pickpocket as a child (he sometimes takes Eve's badge from her without her knowledge to tease her) and as an adult, a thief of very expensive jewels.
Roarke has left most of his friends behind; he has one who tends a bar in Dublin, and another dies in Betrayal in Death. Many others have died or are unknown to him by the time the In Death
books occur. With that, Eve's friends are also his friends.
In Vengeance in Death
, Roarke tells Eve how he met Summerset and Marlena working as a father-daughter pair of con artists, and occasionally worked with them. Sometime after, Roarke's father nearly kills him, and Summerset is the one to heal him. However, in Memory in Death, he says that after Summerset healed him, Roarke thought he was an easy target, and tried to steal from him, which Summerset quickly stopped. If Vengeance is true, it does not make any sense that Roarke would then try to steal from a man he had been working with, however it could also have been that Roarke targeted Summerset as a mark, and tried lull him into complacency by gaining his trust.
In Death
The …in Death series of novels, written by Nora Roberts under her pseudonym J. D. Robb, features NYPSD Lieutenant Eve Dallas and her husband Roarke and is set in a mid-21st century New York City. The stories also regularly feature other characters, including Captain Ryan Feeney, Detective Delia...
. He is the husband of Lt. Eve Dallas
Eve Dallas
Eve Dallas is the main character of the In Death series, a futuristic romance-mystery series by J.D. Robb, pseudonym for author Nora Roberts.- Character Basis :...
and together, they are the main characters of the futuristic (circa 2058 AD) romance-mystery series by J.D. Robb, pseudonym for NY Times best-selling author Nora Roberts
Nora Roberts
Nora Roberts is a bestselling American author of more than 209 romance novels. She writes as J.D. Robb for the "In Death" series, and has also written under the pseudonym Jill March...
. A former career criminal, Roarke is the owner and CEO of Roarke Industries, an inter-planetary corporation that has made him one of the richest men in the world.
Character basis
Roarke is in his mid-thirties; he is an immigrant from Dublin, IrelandIreland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
; in NYC, he is the CEO of Roarke Industries, and one of the richest men in the world, possibly the richest.
He owns an old mansion off of Central Park that he remodeled to his specifications with very high tech security. Also in the home is his own personal collection of firearm
Firearm
A firearm is a weapon that launches one, or many, projectile at high velocity through confined burning of a propellant. This subsonic burning process is technically known as deflagration, as opposed to supersonic combustion known as a detonation. In older firearms, the propellant was typically...
s, which are illegal in 2058 unless one possesses a collector's license. Roarke also owns maces, sword
Sword
A sword is a bladed weapon used primarily for cutting or thrusting. The precise definition of the term varies with the historical epoch or the geographical region under consideration...
s, dagger
Dagger
A dagger is a fighting knife with a sharp point designed or capable of being used as a thrusting or stabbing weapon. The design dates to human prehistory, and daggers have been used throughout human experience to the modern day in close combat confrontations...
s, medieval armor, and other assorted weapons. He is quite skilled in electronics and can dismantle any type of security, lock, or coding, as well as hacking into any electronic database—including but not limited to the FBI, Interpol
Interpol
Interpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...
, and Homeland Security
Homeland security
Homeland security is an umbrella term for security efforts to protect states against terrorist activity. Specifically, is a concerted national effort to prevent terrorist attacks within the U.S., reduce America’s vulnerability to terrorism, and minimize the damage and recover from attacks that do...
.
He convinces Eve to move in with him in Glory in Death
Glory in Death
This is the second book of the In Death series by J. D. Robb, following Naked in Death and preceding Immortal in Death.-Plot introduction:Lieutenant Eve Dallas must find out who is killing a series of high-powered women before he can kill again....
and then proposes at the end of the book. Roarke's house officially becomes a home once Eve moves in, and after this, Roarke is happiest at home rather than traveling. He also enjoys helping Eve with her cases, finding the role reversal quite entertaining.
Official Statistics
- Date of Birth: October 6, 2024
- Residence: 222 Central Park West
- Roarke Industries Headquarters: 500 Fifth Avenue
- Established Roarke Industries in 2042
Eve's computer in Naked in Death actually lists his birth to be in 2023, making Roarke's apparent age 35, but as Roarke discovers in Portrait in Death
Portrait in Death
Portrait in Death is a novel by J. D. Robb. It is the sixteenth novel in the In Death series.-Plot summary:Lt. Eve Dallas is celebrating the shortly-to-start vacation of Summerset, Roarke's majordomo, when he trips over the cat and falls down the stairs, breaking his leg...
, his official record makes him one year older than he actually is. Therefore he is really 34. Additionally, October 6 is an estimate; apparently Roarke simply picked this date as he knew he was born in the first week of October, as he tells Delia.
Roarke has a conversation with Summerset that indicates that at one point in time, Roarke had wanted to get rid of his name, as he did not like being connected with his father. Summerset convinces him to keep it and make it his own, but as seen in the In Death
In Death
The …in Death series of novels, written by Nora Roberts under her pseudonym J. D. Robb, features NYPSD Lieutenant Eve Dallas and her husband Roarke and is set in a mid-21st century New York City. The stories also regularly feature other characters, including Captain Ryan Feeney, Detective Delia...
books, Roarke is only known as Roarke, a name that should be his surname
Surname
A surname is a name added to a given name and is part of a personal name. In many cases, a surname is a family name. Many dictionaries define "surname" as a synonym of "family name"...
, and has no apparent given name.
Physical characteristics
Eve looks up his statistics in Naked in DeathNaked in Death
Naked in Death is the first book of the In Death series by J. D. Robb, preceding Glory in Death. This book originally had a cover flat produced for it with the name "D. J...
. They are as follows:
- Height: 6 feet, 2 inches
- Age: approximately 34 years old (but see above)
- Weight: 173 pounds
- Eye color: blue
- Hair color: black
His black hair is long enough that he can and has tied it back.
Personality
Roarke appears to be very even-tempered, but he does in fact have a very nasty temper if riled. He does not lash out indiscriminately, however, and usually is only angry when the situation calls for it. He has his own personal sense of justice separate from legality; if he believes something should be done, he will do it, even if it is illegal. A case in point is the revenge murders he commits for the rape and murder of Summerset's daughter.He wanted money because it gave him security, and makes no compunctions about enjoying its benefits. Roarke has a very nice mansion, tastefully but expensively decorated, particularly since Roarke has a fondness of antique furniture, old master paintings, and in general, anything with a past to it. This is, as Roarke dryly comments to Mira, because he has no real past of his own.
In addition, he can use the money to buy clothing (which he likes very much) for both himself and his wife. In particular, he enjoys dressing his fashion-unconscious wife, much to her distaste. Roarke also gives Eve as many gifts as he can possibly get away with, justifying it because he wants to make up for everything she was not given before. Some times he gets pissed off with Eve when she hides things from him or when she orders him not to do something or when she refuses to use his money.
When Eve is semi-living with him in Glory in Death
Glory in Death
This is the second book of the In Death series by J. D. Robb, following Naked in Death and preceding Immortal in Death.-Plot introduction:Lieutenant Eve Dallas must find out who is killing a series of high-powered women before he can kill again....
, Roarke decides to get rid of the last remaining illegal businesses he has out of a desire to not make her life difficult. His illegal activity is mostly restricted to conducting illegal searches if he feels it necessary, and occasionally carrying illegal weapons with him (only police officers are allowed to carry stunners, but he has several).
Roarke's greatest and most impossible desire is to take revenge for Eve, impossible because the perpetrator, her father, is already dead. Her nightmares cause him immense suffering because he knows that they will never fully go away, as her father can never truly be beaten. That said, he is given a minor chance at reprisal when he discovers that in Divided in Death that the Homeland Security
Homeland security
Homeland security is an umbrella term for security efforts to protect states against terrorist activity. Specifically, is a concerted national effort to prevent terrorist attacks within the U.S., reduce America’s vulnerability to terrorism, and minimize the damage and recover from attacks that do...
organization knew that Eve was with and being raped by her father, but instead recommended a course of nonaction. Roarke wants to hunt down and kill the people who made and complied with the order, but does not because Eve says she won't be able to handle it if he does. It is likely his largest concession to Eve.
Children are not likely to happen any time soon. Though Roarke has expressed a desire, the simple fact is that neither of them is ready.
History
Roarke grew up in the slums of Dublin, IrelandIreland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, directly after the last and worst part of the series' fictional "Urban Wars", a period of unrest, violence, and corruption. Roarke believed his mother to be his father's wife, Meg Roarke, an abusive woman who lived with his father, Patrick Roarke and walked out on him when the young boy was six. In reality, his mother was an eighteen year-old woman named Siobhan Brody, who Patrick beat to death after she ran away with Roarke.
Roarke is ten when he first meets Summerset and Summerset's eight year old daughter, Marlena. The father and daughter typically run cons. Shortly after their meeting, according to Roarke's account in Immortal in Death
Immortal in Death
Immortal in Death is the third book of the In Death series by J. D. Robb, following Glory in Death and preceding Rapture in Death.- Full Summary:...
, Patrick beats Roarke almost to death and leaves him for dead. Summerset, who had medical training, saves and helps Roarke recover.
When Roarke is twelve, he finds out that his father has been murdered; he immediately heads down to the alley where the death supposedly occurred. Patrick Roarke is indeed dead, stabbed in the throat, an apparent victim of a mugging. Roarke checks his father's pockets and leaves.
It is revealed in Portrait in Death
Portrait in Death
Portrait in Death is a novel by J. D. Robb. It is the sixteenth novel in the In Death series.-Plot summary:Lt. Eve Dallas is celebrating the shortly-to-start vacation of Summerset, Roarke's majordomo, when he trips over the cat and falls down the stairs, breaking his leg...
that the killing was not random. In fact Summerset killed Patrick, a fact he confirms only to Eve, who has guessed it. As of Memory in Death, Roarke still does not know that Summerset killed Patrick. Summerset's motivation was to protect Roarke.
When Roarke is sixteen, his gambling operation is earning a very high profit, too high for a competing group. Marlena confesses her love to Roarke and offers herself to him; horrified, Roarke rejects her and sends her away, thinking she would go back to her room. Instead, Marlena leaves the house and is captured by the competing group, and six men rape and torture her until she dies. They then drop off her body at Summerset's doorstep in the morning. When Roarke and Summerset call the police, they discover that the police have been bought off and will not pursue the case. Roarke thus takes his own justice by murdering those six men over a three year period.
Roarke founds Roarke Industries in 2042, when he is (supposedly) nineteen years old. Presumably he must have immigrated to America by this point in time.
Further detailed information—at least in terms of years—is given throughout the books, revealing that Roarke worked as a pickpocket as a child (he sometimes takes Eve's badge from her without her knowledge to tease her) and as an adult, a thief of very expensive jewels.
Roarke has left most of his friends behind; he has one who tends a bar in Dublin, and another dies in Betrayal in Death. Many others have died or are unknown to him by the time the In Death
In Death
The …in Death series of novels, written by Nora Roberts under her pseudonym J. D. Robb, features NYPSD Lieutenant Eve Dallas and her husband Roarke and is set in a mid-21st century New York City. The stories also regularly feature other characters, including Captain Ryan Feeney, Detective Delia...
books occur. With that, Eve's friends are also his friends.
Continuity errors
In Divided in Death, it is revealed that Richard Troy picks up Patrick Roarke at the airport in Dallas shortly before Troy dies, on May 13, 2036. Eve is eight when she kills Troy; Roarke declares 'prior to finding out his real age' that he was twelve when his father dies which he would be because he would turn thirteen (actually he turns twelve) after Troy dies. However, in 2036, Roarke is supposedly thirteen, making it an error on the part of either Roarke's memory or the author.-
-
- Since Roarke's birthday is in Oct he would not turn 13 until then so in May he would in fact still be 12
-
In Vengeance in Death
Vengeance in Death
Vengeance in Death is the 6th novel in the "....in Death" series written by J. D. Robb aka Nora Roberts. The novel continues where the previous Ceremony in Death left off.- Plot introduction :...
, Roarke tells Eve how he met Summerset and Marlena working as a father-daughter pair of con artists, and occasionally worked with them. Sometime after, Roarke's father nearly kills him, and Summerset is the one to heal him. However, in Memory in Death, he says that after Summerset healed him, Roarke thought he was an easy target, and tried to steal from him, which Summerset quickly stopped. If Vengeance is true, it does not make any sense that Roarke would then try to steal from a man he had been working with, however it could also have been that Roarke targeted Summerset as a mark, and tried lull him into complacency by gaining his trust.
External links
- Roarke from the In Death Wiki Database