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Title: The Body of David Hayes (PEARSON, RIDLEY) by Ridley Pearson, Dick Hill ISBN: 1-59086-744-0 Publisher: Brilliance Audio Pub. Date: 01 April, 2004 Format: Audio Cassette Volumes: 7 List Price(USD): $32.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.23 (22 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Pearson's Greatest Strengths are Exhibited Here
Comment: THE BODY OF DAVID HAYES is the ninth of Ridley Pearson's novels featuring Seattle Police Detectives Lou Boldt and Daphne Matthews. Pearson has infused these books with a number of interesting elements and has reached the point where he can pick and choose among them so that each new offering in the series is familiar yet never predictable. The series is set in Seattle, one of the more fascinating cities in the United States, so that Pearson can build his story around a point of interest (as he did so brilliantly in THE ART OF DECEPTION, for example). He can feature either Boldt or Matthews as the focal point of the story, or alternate between the two. Given the longevity of the series, Pearson can also reach into the past and use it as a propellant for a story set in the present.
THE BODY OF DAVID HAYES is primarily a Boldt book. Actually, that's not quite accurate, as a great deal of the novel concerns Boldt's wife Liz. Lou and Liz hit a rough patch several years previous to the events in THE BODY OF DAVID HAYES. It was during this period that Lou had a brief fling with Daphne Matthews and Liz had an affair with David Hayes, a brilliant computer specialist at Seattle's WestCorp Bank, where Liz is an executive. Lou and Liz were each aware of the other's infidelity; neither of them knew the identity of the other's partner. After Liz ended her affair with Hayes, he embarked on a scheme at the behest of the Russian Mafia wherein he used his computer skills to steal 17 million dollars from WestCorp. The money was never recovered.
Hayes is now out on parole and is seeking to recover the money, and with good reason: he has been put on notice by the Russian mob that his life is in danger if he cannot retrieve it. His intrusion back into Liz's life is sudden and dramatic. Hayes cannot recover the money without access to the inner computer workings of the bank, and Liz is his only way in. What is worse from Liz's standpoint is that her affair with Hayes will be revealed if she does not assist him. Liz, torn between protecting the bank and keeping her family safe, goes to Lou and confesses her prior involvement with Hayes as well as the potential for blackmail, which, of course, will affect Lou as well.
Pearson sets up a neat and interesting dichotomous situation here, whereby Lou has to compartmentalize his feelings as a jealous husband from his job as a law enforcement officer. Complicating matters is the Russian Mafia, who is squeezing Hayes physically and Liz emotionally, and Danny Foreman, a Washington State BCI investigator who is an old friend of the Boldts but whose investigation into Hayes's activities puts him at odds with Lou. The story races to a conclusion in which Lou attempts to orchestrate several different scenarios that take place simultaneously, all with the aim of preventing the recovery of the money while attempting to protect Liz from the terrible danger she is in.
Pearson in THE BODY OF DAVID HAYES has once again worked his unique magic, creating a plausible high-tech tale that never gets bogged down in the minutiae of computer jargon while playing his characters' emotions off of each other. The ultimate effects on Lou and Liz Boldt of the events that take place in THE BODY OF DAVID HAYES are left ambiguous at the end of the novel and will undoubtedly unfold in later installments of this series, providing both an expectation for the future and a realistic touch upon the personal lives of the characters. One is left truly caring about what will happen to these people; the ability to instill this emotion in his readers is, perhaps, Pearson's greatest strength in his formidable literary arsenal.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
Rating: 4
Summary: Boldt & Co. continue to evolve
Comment: 'The Body of David Hayes' is the latest installment in the drama that centers around Lieutenant Lou Boldt, family, and friends. Ridley Pearson's series has, in the past, focused on Lou Boldt, psychologist Daphne Matthews, and detective, now sargeant, John Lamoia as they used high tech forensic science, psychology, and a bit of good old fashioned detective work to track down kidnappers, killers, and rapers. Along the way, Pearson has gone into great depth about the home lives concerning the characters.
Daphne and John have settled into a live in relationship. This came about in the previous novel, which featured Matthews. Consequently, these two figures, while always prominent in past novels, are really no more than side characters in 'The Body of David Hayes.' John gets a fair amount of attention, but Matthews only really appears in about a dozen pages.
The attention of this novel is squarely on Lou Boldt and his wife Liz. The novel reaches back into the earlier installments of the series, and a past lover of Liz's is parolled after serving several years on his sentence for embezelling millions from the bank Liz worked out. Suddenly, Liz finds her entire world, including her career and marriage, in peril as the affair is threatened to be exposed.
While the Boldt's focus on this disruption on their lives, Lou sets out to piece together what exactly is happening. An old friend appears to have gone maverick in an attempt to close the old embezzlement case. The prosecuting attorney suddenly doesn't look so good either. David Hayes is on the loose, and what he is up to is an enigma. To top it all off, the Russian mafia enters the scene. Suddenly, who is an ally and who is an enemy is not quite so clear. Crime scenes are no longer clear, and cast suspicion on many characters.
'The Body of David Hayes' continues Pearson's string of well written novels. His writing, which was always strong, has grown and he is no longer just adept at writing a suspenseful thriller, but has captured the ability to add color to everyday scenes. The turmoil between Lou and Liz is thick and suffocating.
The only down point is that while Pearson kept the readers in suspense as to who exactly the 'bad guy' is, it almost becomes to confusing. Frequently, Liz or Lou would make some sort of discovery which would appear to be profound, but didn't seem to enlighten the reader much. This wouldn't be a problem if the story would then evolve from that point as if the reader had kept up. This doesn't happen a great deal, but enough to be distracting at points.
All in all, its a good novel. Once I started, I couldn't put it down. I recommend it to any fan of Pearson's work or the Boldt series, and any fan of police or crime fiction in general. Some knowledge of previous novels in the series would help, but it is not essential to understanding this novel. Pearson does a good job of summing up the back story so that the new reader is informed without it becoming cumbersome.
Rating: 3
Summary: Not Bad...
Comment: I've been a Ridley Pearson fan for a long time. But while I enjoyed this book and devoured it in a day and a half, I agree with some of the other reviewers when they say that this is not his best effort.
I'm not saying the book is bad. I'm just saying that he's kind of shifted emphasis off Boldt and Daphne and onto Boldt and Liz. That means we get a lot more about the Boldts home life, and less about the police work. In a series about a homicide cop, this book ran against the grain, becoming a novel about bank fraud and the marital relationship between a man and his wife. I applaud the character depth that Ridley went into, but I'd definitely like to get back on the main stream of things and reading about Boldt, Matthews and LaMoia again. This book seemed almost a spinoff from the original series.
I also felt that the direction the story took seemed to lead Boldt to do things that were out of character for him. I'm not gonna give away any spoilers, but well go read it and you'll see what I mean.
Overall, as it always is with any Pearson novel, the writing was tight and suspense masterful. If you're an existing Pearson fan, you should read this. If you're not, don't start with this book because it's not an adequate representation of the power of his work. Pick up one of his earlier novels-- like "No Witnesses" or "The Pied Piper", then come back and read this one later.
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