Reviews

Hra na nikdy by Jeffery Deaver

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vojtko68's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

emmaledbetter's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

jimbowen0306's review against another edition

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3.0

I’ve read a number of Jeffery Denver books, mostly his Lincoln Rhyme series, and this was, by far the worst book of his that I have read.

In this book, we discover there are a group of people who travel the country collecting the rewards that are paid out when rewards are offered on missing people, or convicts/suspects are discovered. Colter Shaw, Denver’s new protagonist, is one such rewardist, and we watch him arrive in Silicon Valley, after a student goes missing.

It’s not a bad book, just somewhat daft. I struggle to believe, for example, that there are sufficient rewards for people to do the job (especially enough for people like Shaw to be as successful as he seems to be in the book).

In addition, I think there’s something about characters that are deliberately written as series. It feels sometimes when they’re written, that the author’s thinking “I have no idea about what character traits will work, so I’ll throw all of them at you.” As a consequence, Shaw has the crazy father, the put upon mother, parents who read him adult books as kids, rather than kids books, the living in the wilderness/survivalist upbringing (I half expected them to be Neo-Nazis at one stage), the fact he has Native-American ancestry (and so had to go through some coming of age ritual), no phones, or televisions growing up, the strange brother who takes it all too far, the inability to really connect to people, or relate to 21st Century. The result is that I’m not even sure I like the guy. He feels like a cross between a Jack Reacher (who doesn’t fight), Dora the Explorer, and someone who is slightly autistic.

Finally, another criticism I would have is that there’s too much story. I can’t work out whether the author really though the main story isn’t sufficiently strong to carry a narrative, and so added a secondary story, or was looking for guidance from his readers, and wanted them to tell him who they wanted him to be. Rewardist, or a slightly autistic Dora the Explorer. The book could have been 10-20% shorter, had he not been in 2 minds as to what he wanted it to be.

So all in all, I’ll probably read the second book in the series, but if the character isn’t decided on by then, I won’t read further.

hollsbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.0

vlreid's review against another edition

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5.0

This is the first book in a series by Jeffery Deaver focusing on Colter Shaw, an expert tracker who finds people and collects rewards. But there's so much more to Shaw and to his work. This is a fast-paced thriller and page-turner, taking Shaw into the wild world of video gaming in order to find and save the three missing individuals.

We also find out about Shaw's backstory: his parents moved Shaw and his two siblings to The Compound in the California mountains when Shaw was very young. They lived off the grid -- no TV, no phones, virtually no contact with the outside world. His father taught the kids how to survive in the wilderness, skills which come in handy in his current line of work.

Shaw is a loner looking for justice. His character reminded me a little of Lee Child's Jack Reacher, another series that I love.

These books are the basis for the new CBS Sunday night show, Tracker, which premiered after the Super Bowl. The TV show seems to be based more on the character of Shaw rather than the details of the books, at least the first one that I read. But once I finished this book, I immediately put the next one in the series on hold at my library, which speaks to how it grabbed me! I'll definitely be following Colter Shaw into his next adventures.

Read more of my reviews at https://thegoodreader13.blogspot.com/.