Krishna
Jeffery Deaver is also one of our frequently reviewed authors. He is well known to bury shocking twists in most (but not all?) of his books so that you get a jolt of surprise from time to time and this is why I am attracted to his books. We have reviewed only books featuring his quadraphlegic detective Lincoln Rhymes mostly (For example see The Kill Room) but also a few with other central characters – for instance, Captivated or The Pain Hunter.)
This one features Kathryn Dance, who makes a cameo appearance in one of Lincoln Rhymes novels, The Cold Moon, which I suspect was the seed for this spin off series.
Let us now look at the story.
Daniel Pell is tried and convicted of the murder of William Croyton, his wife and two of his three children and also manslaughter of his intended assistant James Newburg. Pell has a string of shoplifting and robbery convictions stretching from a very young age.
Theresa, one daughter, survived because she was overlooked by Pell. She was sleeping on her bed but covered with her toys and so Pell did not see her. She was called ‘The Sleeping Doll’ in the press.
Like Charles Manson, whom Pell admired, he was a leader of a cult and lived with three women – Rebecca Sheffield, Linda Whitfield and Samantha McCoy.
The killing of Robert Herron was unsolved but when Pell asked a fellow prisoner to dispose of a weapon and a bloodied cloth from a well, he tattles to the authorities. They recover the claw hammer and the clothes and a purse belonging to Herron.
Kathryn Dance is interviewing Pell but he shows no obvious signs of lying through body language. He claims that the fellow prisoner made it up all by himself. He seems to be even aware of the kinesics (body language) techniques being used by Kathryn to study him!
When he suddenly refuses to cooperate, Kathryn leaves him. Suddenly she realizes that the whole ‘evidence’ is a plant so that he could be moved to the lower security facility for interrogation. She phones to warn the jail authorities but it is too late. There is a fire, and Pell is unshackled. He kills one guard with a knife he had somehow acquired, and escapes in the melee. The guard was somehow disarmed is was critically injured and is fighting for his life in the hospital.
Kathryn is now afraid because he had specifically threatened her family and seems to know a lot about her – by inference as it turns out.
The race to catch Pell and think they have located the van he used to escape (by getting a delivery driver to drive him through roadblocks to escape).
Then through clever tracking (through a computer to which Pell was stupidly given access by the warden) they realize that he is still in the area, and not gone to Utah as ‘he let slip in a conversation’. Kathryn decides to let the police announce that they have information that he has gone to Utah to make him relax. They know that he has an accomplice, by the way he used a hammer and the way he started the fire.
The companion turns out to be Jennie, who is not pretty and is desperate, who was an ardent admirer of Pell. He controls her as he controlled three other women earlier before the murder with the ‘Sleeping Doll’. She believes that he did not hurt anyone at all and that the police are lying to frame him when they recapture him.
A restaurant owner reports finding Pell and a ‘blonde companion’ and is told to keep him there as the police are sent urgently. But Pell catches the deceit and runs in a stolen car, which he sets fire and, in the confusion, escapes, with Kathryn being just minutes late.
Next Pell changes his and Jennie’s appearance. Jennie with short hair and he as a Latino man and he traps and kidnaps a new woman called Susan Pemberton. He murders her and chillingly grooms Jenny into considering murder bit by bit – for his ‘love’.
Dance and the police find the vehicle and realize Pell was the murderer – by his fingerprints.
Pell was staying in the area to kill the prosecutor who had got a verdict against him and ‘one other job’. He finds the prosecutor’s house address, which is guarded by the police. The police guard was lured by Jennie and incapacitated by Pell who stole his uniform. With his own gun he goes to the door, asking the prosecutor, James, to come out but falls into a trap and gets almost killed.
Jennie rescues him in a car and he barely escapes, baffled about what went wrong in his careful planning. Vintage Deaver, who brings his magic to the Dance series as well, as he does on the Rhyme series. The style is familiar, with misdirection until the twist is revealed.
He is astonished that he was outwitted by the attorney and realizes that the police cars were coming towards him even before and realizes that Dance must be at the root of all this. He is simply furious.
Meanwhile, Dance tries the hardest to get him. She contacts the three people in Pell’s “Family” who were collaborating with him on the Croydon murders – Samantha ‘the mouse”, Linda who has a whole new identity and a family where she has hidden the past completely and Rebecca, the wild one. After one interview, Dance leaves them and also manages to get the only survivor, who is the ‘Sleeping Doll’ to separately talk to her.
Meanwhile, Jennie and Pell are in a hotel where they are almost caught again. When a call comes saying ‘room service’ Pell’s heightened alert antenna goes off and they manage to escape just minutes before the police arrive. But Dance gets a note from Pell in Jenny’s pockets and manages to ID her.
Pell, when he checks into a cheap motel and goes out for groceries, sees Jenny’s driving license displayed on the TV and immediately kills her. Then comes the biggest of the twist, about one of the earlier Family, Rebecca whom Dance is using to interview about Pell. Fascinating.
Pell almost gets Dance and his young assistant TJ but Dance outwits him, sowing suspicions about Rebecca using what may have been true. Rebecca is injured by a shot from an enraged Pell but he seems to have gone clean away.
The agent who comes from FBI definitely is impressive, though not classically handsome. He, Kellogg, reminds Dance of her husband Bill. In spite of the fact that both her kids are nervous about her dating again, they get close.
Meanwhile, Daniel Pell is focused on killing the two traitors of the family, Lisa and Samantha. Thanks to Rebecca, he knows all about their betrayal. There is a tense confrontation in the hotel. Dance guesses his intention and warns them about Pell just before starting to drive there with her team. However, Pell manages to shoot Linda in the stomach before fleeing.
They decide to move into one of the caves when Linda collapses and Sam leaves her bleeding. Pell reaches there and Linda prepares to meet her maker but they had reckoned without the determination of Sam, who they used to call “the mouse” for her timidity back in the Family Days. She wounds Pell who runs away to regroup. When Sam makes the call, Dance, Kellogg and others reach the area and a manhunt for Pell begins.
With about thirty pages still to go, the story seems to come to an end and you wonder what else is there to write about. But then I had forgotten the ability of Jeffrey Deaver to put twists within twists within twists (for an excellent example, read The Stone Monkey from the same author) and the story twists and turns its way through multiple other surprises to its satisfying conclusion.
Great story, as you would expect from the author even without his most famous detective Lincoln Rhyme. (Oh yes, I know Rhyme makes a cameo in this one but it does not count!). A great read!
9/10
— Krishna