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3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
Reviewed First at Brunner's Bookshelf
Jeffery Deaver is one of the best writers out there. As anyone who reads my blog regularly would know he is my favorite author and I look forward to every book he writes. This book is a classic Deaver book with twists and turns around every page and plenty of suspense, but for me there was something more in this one.
The villain in this one doesn't care how many people he kills or who dies he just wants chaos. He causes things in crowded places causing a stampede and a riot. In the opening of the book we are at a concert for some boy band and and all of a sudden there is the smell of fire. People panic and try to head towards the exits but they are blocked. What happens next is terrifying. I am not claustrophobic but the thoughts of being trapped in a crowd of people or being trampled by fearful people trying to get out is one of the worst things I could think of. That and seeing someone I love trapped in that same mass panic and being dragged further and further away from me. This isn't like a Stephen King Novel with Psychotic clowns or haunted hotels, but this at times was just as scary because something like this could be real. Not only do we get one hell of a story with one of my favorite characters, Kathryn Dance, but this really had an affect on me while I read it.
Deaver always has a way of writing villains. They are smart and cunning with every detailed planned out so meticulously. They are the kind of character you almost think they are going to getaway with whatever they have done. This book is no different, there has to be a strong villain to stand up to Kathryn Dance. In this book she has quite a few struggles to overcome on top of trying to stop this killer. She miss-read a suspect and let the leader of a powerful gang go and was demoted because if it. Her kids are distant and hiding things from her and she has to try to put the agent side of her on the back burner and be a mom first. All of this is pulling her attention in several directions helped to maintain the suspense level and distract the reader from all of the other things going on.
I will be honest and say this isn't one of the stronger stories by Deaver, but that doesn't mean this book wasn't good. Quite the opposite actually. Even though he has written much stronger works this book did something I haven't run into before. As I mentioned earlier I am not claustrophobic but while I read this book I became claustrophobic in a large room with lost of space. The vivid images and intense situations was enough to make me feel completely immersed in the book like I was being pressed in masses of panicked people. Deaver has always been a master of suspense but this was the first time I felt real terror reading this book at times. I loved it, Kathryn Dance is a great character and I love every novel in this series. The ending is very character heavy which I liked. Of course the conflict is resolved but then there is a good bit left for us to just visit with Kathryn and see what all is going on in her life away from the law enforcement side. This is just as good as the main plot. I will give this the highest honor I can and give this and Solitude Creek gets 5 out of 5 stars. I might be a little bias because Deaver is my favorite author and a really great guy, but this really is a great book and I recommend it to everyone looking for a great suspenseful read. Even though this book is part of a series it can be read on its own.
Jeffery Deaver is one of the best writers out there. As anyone who reads my blog regularly would know he is my favorite author and I look forward to every book he writes. This book is a classic Deaver book with twists and turns around every page and plenty of suspense, but for me there was something more in this one.
The villain in this one doesn't care how many people he kills or who dies he just wants chaos. He causes things in crowded places causing a stampede and a riot. In the opening of the book we are at a concert for some boy band and and all of a sudden there is the smell of fire. People panic and try to head towards the exits but they are blocked. What happens next is terrifying. I am not claustrophobic but the thoughts of being trapped in a crowd of people or being trampled by fearful people trying to get out is one of the worst things I could think of. That and seeing someone I love trapped in that same mass panic and being dragged further and further away from me. This isn't like a Stephen King Novel with Psychotic clowns or haunted hotels, but this at times was just as scary because something like this could be real. Not only do we get one hell of a story with one of my favorite characters, Kathryn Dance, but this really had an affect on me while I read it.
Deaver always has a way of writing villains. They are smart and cunning with every detailed planned out so meticulously. They are the kind of character you almost think they are going to getaway with whatever they have done. This book is no different, there has to be a strong villain to stand up to Kathryn Dance. In this book she has quite a few struggles to overcome on top of trying to stop this killer. She miss-read a suspect and let the leader of a powerful gang go and was demoted because if it. Her kids are distant and hiding things from her and she has to try to put the agent side of her on the back burner and be a mom first. All of this is pulling her attention in several directions helped to maintain the suspense level and distract the reader from all of the other things going on.
I will be honest and say this isn't one of the stronger stories by Deaver, but that doesn't mean this book wasn't good. Quite the opposite actually. Even though he has written much stronger works this book did something I haven't run into before. As I mentioned earlier I am not claustrophobic but while I read this book I became claustrophobic in a large room with lost of space. The vivid images and intense situations was enough to make me feel completely immersed in the book like I was being pressed in masses of panicked people. Deaver has always been a master of suspense but this was the first time I felt real terror reading this book at times. I loved it, Kathryn Dance is a great character and I love every novel in this series. The ending is very character heavy which I liked. Of course the conflict is resolved but then there is a good bit left for us to just visit with Kathryn and see what all is going on in her life away from the law enforcement side. This is just as good as the main plot. I will give this the highest honor I can and give this and Solitude Creek gets 5 out of 5 stars. I might be a little bias because Deaver is my favorite author and a really great guy, but this really is a great book and I recommend it to everyone looking for a great suspenseful read. Even though this book is part of a series it can be read on its own.
2.5 stars I really used to love Jeffery Deaver. I don't think I like these Katherine Dance stories. She's become a superhuman on par with Alex Cross. And this ending was totally ridiculous. So much of the incidental narration felt patronizing ans detracted from the point of the story.
Being a fan of Jeffery Deaver and the character Kathyrn Dance, I was looking forward to reading this novel. is it possible to love and hate a book at the same time?
The style of this book makes it a good read. Nothing is what it seems to be and without giving anything away, the subplots become pointers to what the complete story is about. The twists and turns keep you guessing and at the end I wanted to go back and reread the book to see if it still held up.
The style of this book makes it a bad read. Nothing is what it seems to be and it becomes predictable that what you are reading is not what is actually true. This method of telling a story would have worked better if it had not been overused.
Kathryn Dance is both amazing and frustrating. She is a strong character with the ability to detect lies and feelings from body language. She is frustrating because she has to notice the smell of every man she encounters.
The antagonist, Antioch March, is both scary and unbelievable. Scary in that there are people who enjoy watching others suffer, unbelievable in that he makes too many mistakes that get him caught.
This book is good for the description of Monterey and the surrounding area. Since I live there, it was interesting to see what areas Deaver used as settings. This book is bad for the description of Monterey and the surrounding area. For someone who seemed to know the location, Deaver blew it in describing the water. He said that the water temperature was such that a man would only last four or five minutes before hypothermia set in. Tell that to all the swimmers who spend the day in the water here. He even contradicts himself when a woman is struggling in the water, who can’t swim, has a broken arm, yet is still alive when the Coast Guard finally reaches her.
While Deaver keeps us guessing and tests our intelligence with the twists and turns, he insults the reader by repeating things we already know. He tells us three times that someone is checking out a possible witness to one of the crimes, as if we would have forgotten.
Moments of brilliance, moments of bad writing. I stand in the middle of loving and hating this book. This one gets three stars.
The style of this book makes it a good read. Nothing is what it seems to be and without giving anything away, the subplots become pointers to what the complete story is about. The twists and turns keep you guessing and at the end I wanted to go back and reread the book to see if it still held up.
The style of this book makes it a bad read. Nothing is what it seems to be and it becomes predictable that what you are reading is not what is actually true. This method of telling a story would have worked better if it had not been overused.
Kathryn Dance is both amazing and frustrating. She is a strong character with the ability to detect lies and feelings from body language. She is frustrating because she has to notice the smell of every man she encounters.
The antagonist, Antioch March, is both scary and unbelievable. Scary in that there are people who enjoy watching others suffer, unbelievable in that he makes too many mistakes that get him caught.
This book is good for the description of Monterey and the surrounding area. Since I live there, it was interesting to see what areas Deaver used as settings. This book is bad for the description of Monterey and the surrounding area. For someone who seemed to know the location, Deaver blew it in describing the water. He said that the water temperature was such that a man would only last four or five minutes before hypothermia set in. Tell that to all the swimmers who spend the day in the water here. He even contradicts himself when a woman is struggling in the water, who can’t swim, has a broken arm, yet is still alive when the Coast Guard finally reaches her.
While Deaver keeps us guessing and tests our intelligence with the twists and turns, he insults the reader by repeating things we already know. He tells us three times that someone is checking out a possible witness to one of the crimes, as if we would have forgotten.
Moments of brilliance, moments of bad writing. I stand in the middle of loving and hating this book. This one gets three stars.
Jeffery Deaver is back with a new Kathryn Dance thriller. He is following Agent Dance while she tries to make sense out of the actions of an unknown perpetrator who creates conditions that are suitable for a crowd to panic and triggers stampedes resulting in multiple deaths. The complication is that Dance is demoted to the Civil Division since she misread the reaction of a drug cartel affiliate which resulted in his escape. She can not carry a weapon and she is instructed to keep to insurance related matters.
While the drama is growing, Dance is also confused in her private life with her two children and multiple suitors.
As usual Deaver weaves multiple threads and slowly brings them to fruition. However, I had problems with this book:
1) Kathryn Dance is a "kinesics" expert, thus her special skill is to be able to read the body language of potential criminals and is supposed to get early warning to stop or disable them. However this skill is not used much in this book (apart from the flaw which lands her in the Civil Division). Actually she is portrayed very similar to Deaver's other protagonists (e.g. Lincoln Rhyme)
2) Deaver is famous for his twists and turns. His plot quickly changes direction, perplexing the reader who was sure about a certain protagonist or baddie. Again this book had very few if any of these plot twists.
So, the book is okay but not exceptional.
While the drama is growing, Dance is also confused in her private life with her two children and multiple suitors.
As usual Deaver weaves multiple threads and slowly brings them to fruition. However, I had problems with this book:
1) Kathryn Dance is a "kinesics" expert, thus her special skill is to be able to read the body language of potential criminals and is supposed to get early warning to stop or disable them. However this skill is not used much in this book (apart from the flaw which lands her in the Civil Division). Actually she is portrayed very similar to Deaver's other protagonists (e.g. Lincoln Rhyme)
2) Deaver is famous for his twists and turns. His plot quickly changes direction, perplexing the reader who was sure about a certain protagonist or baddie. Again this book had very few if any of these plot twists.
So, the book is okay but not exceptional.
Really enjoyed this one - the characters in the series are developing more and allowing for more complex plotting involving their own lives as well as the mystery. Very clever mystery plot, with fear as the weapon, and I enjoyed the setting and how it played out.
Thank you to the author and publisher for my free copy of Solitude Creek by Jeffery Deaver. It has always been a pleasure to read a Deaver book. However, this time, I felt that I was missing too much of the story because I had not read the previous K.Dance books. The book does not seem to stand alone at all. This said, the plot of the novel was very original. The murder method was ingenious and developed in an interesting manner. I found the resolution of the crime spree slightly anti-climactic because the author simply dealt with it and quickly went on to another subject. In the future, I will read the previous novels to better situate myself into the storyline and I look forward to the next K. Dance novel as well. A Deaver novel is always something to look forward to.
Call it a 3.5. Solid addition to the series with some pay offs from previous books, but not the most intriguing read from this author.
A solid Deaver. I like Dance as lead character, and the book had a lot going on, plot-wise, with a couple of big juicy twists at the end. Occasionally felt like a lot of grisly detail, and a bit too convenient at the end--but eh, minor quibbles for such an entertaining read.
Once again, if not for Booklikes-opoly I would have DNFed this thing. I wanted the page count though so I put up with it. FYI, this book is awful.
I gave this book half a star since it doesn't even deserve a full star. The entire book from start to finish was nonsensical and just insulting to anyone that has been reading this series. I honestly am baffled at how Deaver writes Kathryn Dance since he manages to write Amelia Sachs (The Lincoln Rhyme series) as a well developed character. Dance is written so terribly in this book, one wonders how the heck she even has a job. I also don't get why she has one man, let alone two wanting to be with her. You never get to see what is so great about her.
Dance is busted down in this one due to the fact that due to her reading a suspect wrong, he manages to get away. That segues over into Dance being asked to go over the insurance/documentation at at place called Solitude Creek. There was a recent incident at Solitude Creek that left several people injured and dead. That doesn't really matter though, the big issue is that Dance is not supposed to be investigating due to her new status, but does so anyway and you keep reading Dance having asides to herself about the fact she's not supposed to be investigating. When Dance's colleague Michael O'Neill is called in to help, she feels annoyed because she doesn't get why he's mad at her (probably because she's not supposed to be investigating a thing and is also not carrying a gun and that could lead to other people being hurt).
Between Dance trying to force herself back into the investigation that has a suspect on the run and trying to figure out what is going on at Solitude Creek the book already felt full. But nope, Deaver throws in some issues with Dance's two kids who still read like robots come to life. Then there's the question of Dance and her relationship with her boyfriend that she has been seeing for maybe a year book timeline wise.
The POVs were Dance, the bad guy in this one and then for some odd reason we go into a POV of a friend of Dance's as well as Dance's boyfriend. At that point I wanted to scream that just because the guy works with computers does not mean that he speaks to himself in freaking programming language.
And what's sad is that the most important part about Dance's character, ie her skills with kinesiology are not displayed at all. For some weird reason Deaver does some freaking cut aways and then you have other character remark at how awesome Dance was and how she was able to get information from a witness/suspect. Um are you serious? Why in the world wouldn't you show that?
The writing was really poor as was the flow. Deaver tries to throw some red herrings in here and there and I was actively rooting for her or her kids to end up dead in this one since that meant the series may be coming to a close. That's not a good thing to admit, but I was just sick of reading about Dance and her whole family by the time the final page was turned.
The ending was a joke and a half. We had someone propose to Dance (whatever man) and someone else saying goodbye to her romantically.
I gave this book half a star since it doesn't even deserve a full star. The entire book from start to finish was nonsensical and just insulting to anyone that has been reading this series. I honestly am baffled at how Deaver writes Kathryn Dance since he manages to write Amelia Sachs (The Lincoln Rhyme series) as a well developed character. Dance is written so terribly in this book, one wonders how the heck she even has a job. I also don't get why she has one man, let alone two wanting to be with her. You never get to see what is so great about her.
Dance is busted down in this one due to the fact that due to her reading a suspect wrong, he manages to get away. That segues over into Dance being asked to go over the insurance/documentation at at place called Solitude Creek. There was a recent incident at Solitude Creek that left several people injured and dead. That doesn't really matter though, the big issue is that Dance is not supposed to be investigating due to her new status, but does so anyway and you keep reading Dance having asides to herself about the fact she's not supposed to be investigating. When Dance's colleague Michael O'Neill is called in to help, she feels annoyed because she doesn't get why he's mad at her (probably because she's not supposed to be investigating a thing and is also not carrying a gun and that could lead to other people being hurt).
Between Dance trying to force herself back into the investigation that has a suspect on the run and trying to figure out what is going on at Solitude Creek the book already felt full. But nope, Deaver throws in some issues with Dance's two kids who still read like robots come to life. Then there's the question of Dance and her relationship with her boyfriend that she has been seeing for maybe a year book timeline wise.
The POVs were Dance, the bad guy in this one and then for some odd reason we go into a POV of a friend of Dance's as well as Dance's boyfriend. At that point I wanted to scream that just because the guy works with computers does not mean that he speaks to himself in freaking programming language.
And what's sad is that the most important part about Dance's character, ie her skills with kinesiology are not displayed at all. For some weird reason Deaver does some freaking cut aways and then you have other character remark at how awesome Dance was and how she was able to get information from a witness/suspect. Um are you serious? Why in the world wouldn't you show that?
The writing was really poor as was the flow. Deaver tries to throw some red herrings in here and there and I was actively rooting for her or her kids to end up dead in this one since that meant the series may be coming to a close. That's not a good thing to admit, but I was just sick of reading about Dance and her whole family by the time the final page was turned.
The ending was a joke and a half. We had someone propose to Dance (whatever man) and someone else saying goodbye to her romantically.