This is my first excursion with Jefferey Deaver, and it left me with contradictory thoughts. The Broken Window has a nice plot involving the most sophisticated identity theft and manipulation imaginable; a paraplegic sleuth with a bitter memory that longs for sweetening; a gorgeous red-headed paramour-detective; lots of super-technological maneuvering; a plot that moves like a … Continue reading DEAVER’S BROKEN WINDOW
It’s been a while since I read Daniel Alarcon’s fantastic War by Candlelight and Lost City Radio, seeing an occasional something from him in The New Yorker or elsewhere and wondering when the next big one was coming. I was passing by my favorite neighborhood bookstore a couple of weeks ago, and, lo! A window full of At Night We Walk … Continue reading ALARCON’S NIGHT OF BROKEN CIRCLES
Ok, here’s my third Deaver. Definitely my last for a while, and maybe forever. Of the three I’ve read, The Burning Wire is the best, I think, so maybe I should quit now. Deaver loves to research a subject to death, then make a novel out of the results. Something like Ian McEwan, who’s done both … Continue reading IT’S ELECTRIC–DEAVER’S BURNING WIRE
My last (and first) encounter with Jeffrey Deaver was back in March when I reviewed The Broken Window and was less than satisfied with this a-list thriller author. The Kill Room was a different experience. The search for the killer and his method is exciting and intellectually challenging throughout, and quadriplegic sleuth Lincoln Rhyme runs into plenty of dead … Continue reading KILL ROOM A KILLER BOOK–ALMOST
Well I’m on a roll. Three losers in a row. The Broken Window, The Marriage Plot, and now The Financial Lives of Poets. Here’s how Jess Walter sets it up: Matthew’s a laid-off journalist in danger of losing home and wife. One night he goes out to a 7/11 for milk, falls in with some gangbangers, and decides to … Continue reading FINANCIAL LIVES OF POETS– TITLE? NICE. BOOK? NOT SO MUCH
