The Never Game (2019) by Jeffery Deaver

Colter Shaw isn’t a private detective or a member of the law enforcement community. He is from a family of survivalists – an expert tracker with a world view seen through probabilities who makes a living by finding people when rewards are offered for their safe return.

But when he starts hunting for Sophie, an apparent runaway, it becomes clear that this is far from just simply tracking her down. A twisted game-player is loose in Silicon Valley and Sophie is just the beginning…

OK, I wasn’t planning to read this, but my review e-copy of Everyone In This Bank Is A Thief kept making my Kindle freeze so when I spotted the rest of this series for a pittance on Amazon, I thought I’d drag this out of my TBR folder and give it a go. Technically, I mean give it another go – I think I’ve tried starting it twice in the past but couldn’t really get past the Reacher-y-ness of the character.

Not that he’s violent or built like a brick outhouse, but the fact that Shaw seems to know absolutely everything about everything. I’m sure he would, like Reacher, know the inner workings of the New York City water supply should be be required to act on it. Having said that, this time I didn’t see the opening section as a problem – indeed, it took a little while to remember what my problem was with it on the previous two attempts.

As for the plot, it’s pretty gripping. It takes a while to reveal the overall pattern (and well done, blurb writer, for not spoiling it) and Shaw’s races against time to find the victim are fun to read. The supporting cast is good too, especially Standish (a cop who actually listens to the rogue hero for once) and Maddie, the sort-of love interest (who I do hope comes back in a later book as I thought she was very interesting). The flashbacks to Colter’s youthful experiences worked well to give some background to his story.

Having said that, I don’t think Deaver sticks the landing. There’s a core idea that worked very well the first time it was used (possibly by Dame Agatha – she did use it very well) and then there’s a bundle of conspiracy stuff on top of that. Having said that, I did like Colter’s methods, especially convincing one guilty party to turn themselves in. On the other hand, he does seem to pull solutions out of thin air at times. Deaver does the “I bet you thought one thing, but all the time something else was happening” but rarely so heavily here. Nothing is clued – everything is solved off-page by Shaw and/or friends doing something clever that we aren’t party too until after the fact. And the identity of the villain felt a bit underwhelming.

I don’t think this is top-notch Deaver, but I do like Colter Shaw and now we’ve established him, I’ll look forward to seeing where he goes next.

My Jeffery Deaver Reviews:

Lincoln Rhyme

Katherine Dance

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