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Much like Eve Dallas, Lily Beard, is a strong, capable woman with a horrific past that has left her basically alone. The reader meets her just as she begins to reach out once more.

The first of the series, Shakespeare's landlord, begins with a late-night in tiny Shakespeare, Ark., when Lily Bard sees a furtive figure placing large plastic garbage bags in the local park. Untying one, Lily discovers the body of her former landlord. In a quick but anonymous phone call, she reports it to the police chief. Realizing, however, that her fingerprints on the body of the dead man might make her a suspect, Lily subtly queries the customers of her cleaning agency, some of them tenants of the murdered landlord, in the process meticulously evaluating their closets, drawers and motives. As Lily investigates, she develops a wary but cordial relationship with the police chief and forms a warmer tie with her karate instructor.

While this series is set is England, rather than the near-future East Coast, the protagonists have the same general personality and tough cop demeanor as Robb's Eve. First in the series is The hard detective.

Start with The Hard Detective featuring Detective Chief Inspector Harriet Martens as she seeks a serial killer targeting constables of the Greater Birchester Police for the "eye for an eye" injunctions of Exodus 21:23.

Begin with Moon Called the first in the series to truly appreciate Mercy's strength. While her past isn't as horrific as Eve's, Mercy has also known difficulties and is very independent.

While trying to live a so-called normal existence, mechanic Mercy Thompson, a shapeshifter raised by werewolves, gets into trouble with the gremlins, witches, and vampires with whom she deals on a daily basis

Like Eve, Cat Kinsella has a troubled (albeit less traumatic) background, but Cat has already created a 'found family' at work. Begin with Sweet Little Lies.

Twenty-six-year-old Cat Kinsella overcame a troubled childhood to become a Detective Constable with the Metropolitan Police Force, but she's never been able to banish these ghosts. When she's called to the scene of a murder in Islington, not far from the pub her estranged father still runs, she discovers that Alice Lapaine, a young housewife who didn't get out much, has been found strangled. Cat and her team immediately suspect Alice's husband, until she receives a mysterious phone call that links the victim to Maryanne Doyle, a teenage girl who went missing in Ireland eighteen years earlier. The call raises uneasy memories for Cat--her family met Maryanne while on holiday, right before she vanished. Though she was only a child, Cat knew that her charming but dissolute father wasn't telling the truth when he denied knowing anything about Maryanne or her disappearance. Did her father do something to the teenage girl all those years ago? Could he have harmed Alice now? And how can you trust a liar even if he might be telling the truth?

Fast pacing, well-drawn characters, and a look at the life of a science-fiction writer add to this humorous first-person account in which the suburbs turn out to be no guarantee of personal safety. Lighter crime capers than most of Eve's cases.

In the first of the series, Bad move, Sarah's habit of leaving her purse in the grocery cart while she studies the aisles irritates her husband Zack Walker. So decides to teach her a lesson and grabs it, tosses it in the trunk of their car, and waits for her to realize it's been stolen. Unfortunately he picked the wrong purse from the wrong cart, and when he tries to return it surreptitiously, he bumps into the owner—dead on the floor of her garage: the second dead body he's found in under a week. The first, discovered on a walk near a pond, belonged to an eco-nerd whom he'd heard fight with the real-estate developer of his new house in Valley Forest Estates, a developer whose secretary now lies moldering in her garage. Things go downhill from there.

Much, *much* lighter in tone than Robb's series. Evanovich effectively blends humor with the reality of life on the mean streets. The violence is graphic, but essential, and adds to the impact of the story. The ensemble of secondary characters is outstanding, the dialogue terrific, and the plot compelling. Start with the beginning of the series, One for the money.

Stephanie Plum, a New Jersey native, is a laid-off discount lingerie buyer. Desperate for bucks, she decides to pursue a career as an "apprehension agent," tracking down scofflaws for her bail bondsman cousin, Vinnie. Her first mission: to bring in Joe Morelli, a cop accused of murder. Apprehending Joe is worth $10,000--plus it offers sweet revenge for Stephanie, who first encountered Joe when he introduced her to sex behind the eclair case of the Trenton bakery where she worked in high school. Joe insists that Ziggy Kulesza, the guy he shot, had first drawn on him and that witnesses will back up his story -- naturally, he can't produce Ziggy's gun or those witnesses just yet.

Start with Hidden. Hide. That's all Pippa can do to escape the terror chasing her. But now that she's off the grid in a safe house, she finds plenty of interesting things to watch through the window. Like her new neighbor, with his startling green eyes, killer smile, and sexy bad-boy tattoo . . .

Malcolm West is fleeing the hell he unleashed in his last assignment as an undercover cop. A backwoods bungalow sounds like the perfect place to start over. Until he discovers he's been set up . . .

Howard's MacKenzie's series of Military Romances have become classics of the genre. The MacKenzie novels feature five family members, one of whom is a SEAL. These books do not have to be read in order. Fans of Brockmann may particularly like MacKenzie's Pleasure as strong men, close family ties, and details of military tactics makes this story a good match.

Peters' series provides a similar mix of mystery and romance. A romantic relationship develops between two strong characters starting in the first book. And, similar to Eve, the main female lead collects new friends almost by accident. Start with the first in the series: Crocodile on the sandbank.

Amelia receives a rather large inheritance and decides to travel to Egypt where she plans to indulge her passion for Egyptology. On her way through Rome to Egypt, she meets Evelyn Barton-Forbes, a young woman abandoned by her lover and left with no means of support. Compelled by her sense of duty Amelia takes Evelyn under her wing, insisting that the young lady accompany her to Egypt. Then they meet Radcliffe Emerson, an archaeologist, and sparks begin to fly. When Evelyn becomes the target of an aborted kidnapping and the focus of a series of suspicious accidents and mysterious visitations, Amelia becomes convinced of a plot to harm her young friend.

In a secluded corner of Hope Beach, one woman must decipher a stranger's memories . . . before they cost her everything. Elin Summerall was one of the lucky ones. Not only did she get a heart transplant, but the donor was a perfect fit. A miraculously perfect fit. But when Elin begins having violent flashbacks--and vivid dreams of being strangled--she realizes that she has been the recipient of more than just a new heart . . . Elin is remembering her donor's murder.

Her strange affliction has attracted some unwanted attention: from the press, from the authorities . . . and from the killer himself. Now, living alone with her young daughter and aging mother, Elin is being stalked—by a man she's only met in her nightmares. The police are dubious of her story, but one off-duty FBI agent agrees to help her: Agent Marc Everton. Now, in a remote cottage on Hope Island, Elin and Marc must probe the secrets buried in her borrowed heart. And there's no time to waste. One man is desperate to silence her—before she remembers too much.