The Bodies Left Behind [Paperback]

The Bodies Left Behind

A call to the emergency services is cut off after only one word. Brynn discovers a murder scene, then has to flee for her own life.

Pursued and pursuer are both highly intelligent and out-second-guessing each other - a real cat and mouse, bluff and counter-bluff, building up of tension, which makes it very difficult to put down this book. Also a surprising twist that I definitely hadn't seen coming.

Very scary, a real page-turner, and I shall be looking out for this author again

A standalone novel from Deaver with most of the story featuring a female cop and witness to murder escaping from two hitmen and being chased through a jungle.

The story starts off quite tight but the jungle chase drags repetitively and whilst there is a lot of trickery in the chase, with bluffs and double-bluffs, the plot is somewhat unbeliveable in the pitch black night.

Deaver as expected pulls off a few master mis-directions after the jungle chase and you get that 'i didn't see that coming' buzz. He also leaves a few loose ends which I found rather annoying as opposed to intriguing.

Overall, below the high standard we expect from Dever, and an average, read.

A couple are murdered in a remote house on the edge of Marquette State Park, Wisconsin, and off-duty deputy Brynn McKenzie is called up to look into the reasons behind a one-word 9-1-1 call from the scene. Once there she becomes involved in a shoot-out with the contract killers and manages to escape, minus her weapon, with a younger woman in tow. So begins a night-time pursuit across the unforgivingly mountainous terrain of the park, the killers determined to snuff out the only witnesses to the crime. In real time this takes twelve hours, but it occupies more than 350 pages of a hard-back book that is 439 pages in overall length.

Three steps forwards, two steps back? I say that because the previous Deaver novel I read - THE SLEEPING DOLL - was excellent, one of his best. I have read eighteen of his stories now, so I think it's fair to say that I know his writing well; I know how good he can be, and I know how infuriating he can be with his OTT twists and too-many-endings. Neither accusation can be made against him for this latest release however. It's just 'quite good', with a mildly interesting story, lukewarm characters, and tepid suspense levels. As I said, the bulk of it is made up of two baddies chasing two women in the darkness through the raw landscape of a Wisconsin state park, with any attempts at suspense rather weak and repeatedly knocked down by the hunted women trying but always failing to outwit their pursuers by way of what we Deaver fans know as trademark deceptions and red herrings. So instead of the reader being deceived, it's the criminals themselves, except the smarter of the two (as there always is) manages to second-guess the trickery of the policewoman he is after on every occasion.

Brynn McKenzie's personal life features prominently from start to finish, with her recollections of a violent ex-husband, her attempts to deal with her troublesome twelve-year-old son, and her fragile relationship with her second husband. Much of this was included, I felt, to satisfy a female audience, and although it's generally authentic it wasn't terribly interesting. The same could be said of Brynn herself; this is a stand-alone novel so we won't be seeing her again, but I have to say that she is no less interesting a character than the leading personality of the new series built around kinesics expert Dr Kathryn Dance, first seen at length in THE SLEEPING DOLL. However, what that novel contained - in spades - was an outstandingly well-drawn character in the form of the villain Daniel Pell. In THE BODIES LEFT BEHIND, that reponsibility falls on the shoulders of contract killer Terry Hart, and he fails to deliver the goods. Which means that of all the many characters in this story, quite a few of whom are analysed or explored in detail, there isn't a single one worth remembering or caring for. No-one to like very much, no one to hate very much.

As for the story itself, well it's promoted as a thriller but frankly it isn't deserving of such a title. It's quite interesting, yes, but the night-long pursuit goes on way too long, despite Deaver's best and mainly commendable efforts to describe the unforgiving landscape and the horticultural diversity. I was vaguely reminded of a Lincoln Rhyme novel of nearly a decade back entitled THE EMPTY CHAIR, much of which was dedicated to what it felt like to be in the middle of nowhere, but that story had the charismatic Rhyme in it together with a most unusual counterpart in the Insect Boy. No such treats this time round, sad to report. Deaver is unquestionably a great writer but in my considered judgement he was having a bit of an off-day here. The only real high-point is the excellent imagery, but most of the other elements of a good crime suspense thriller are absent - for characterisation, attention-grabbing suspense, a gripping story, it failed on all counts. Anyone new to Deaver might be suitably unimpressed, which would be a pity because there are some jewels in his back library.

Thankfully, normal service is bound to resume later this year with the return of Lincoln Rhyme.