Product Description

A distant lake house in Wisconsin. A call to police emergency is cut short. A phone glitch or something more sinister? Off-duty deputy Brynn McKenzie goes to find out.

And stumbles onto the scene of a murder. Before she can call for backup, she finds herself the next potential victim. Deprived of her phone, weapon and car, Brynn flees, along with the only survivor of the crime.

These unlikely allies can survive only by escaping into the dense, deserted woods, on a desperate trek to safety. And ultimately to a life or death choice. Flight. Or fight?

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #840 in Books
• Published on: 2009-10-29
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

Review
‘Confirms his status as one of the finest crime writers in the world . . . grabs the reader by the throat from the beginning. Superb.’ (Independent on Sunday )

'The pace is terrific, the suspense inexorable, and there is an excellent climax . . . If you want thrills, Deaver is your man.' (Guardian )

'Not just an adrenaline-charged manhunt but a game of deception and multiple double-cross that keeps the reader guessing right up to the final page' (The Times )

'A real page-turner from start to finish' (Daily Mirror )

'An epic cat-and-mouse chase' (Sunday Telegraph )

'Full of his trademark misdirections, bluffs and double-bluffs . . . It'll be snapped up and devoured by Deaver's legions of loyal fans' (News of the World on THE BODIES LEFT BEHIND )

'Deaver cleverly keeps the surprises up his sleeve until the very end'

(Daily Mail on THE BODIES LEFT BEHIND )

'A thrill-a-minute wilderness adventure'

(New York Times on THE BODIES LEFT BEHIND )

'A head-spinning, clever cat-and-mouse tale that hurtles along at 100mph . . . Full of twists, turns, bluffs and double bluffs, it's an edge-of-the-seat read from beginning to end' (Sunday Express on THE BODIES LEFT BEHIND )

'My, can he make you turn those pages! His real genius lies in superb plotting, which is exactly what the thriller genre demands . . . Deaver is so expert at this kind of thing it must be routine for him by now, but there is never a hint of complacency in his writing.'

(Herald )

About the Author
Jeffery Deaver was a lawyer before quitting work to become a full-time writer.

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Customer Reviews

Surprisingly disappointing!
A rare miss for Jeffery Deaver, he's the only thriller writer I read anymore and I have always to date, enjoyed the convoluted twisted and colourful villains that feature so heavily in his books. This is not a Lincoln Rhyme book but I knew that anyway so I can't take a point off for that but its still not as good as any in the Rhyme cycle.

The majority of the book involves a chase through the woods which has its moments but after a while you're left thinking 'please end'. His earlier book 'The Empty Chair' used the wilderness much more effectively to convey story and plot. As for the famous twists... well you'll see it coming miles off and aha, but what about the other twists... well, there aren't any. There is some minor details that emerge about the heroine's private life but they don't have anything to do with the main thread and feel a little bit like distractions when they do come up. There are a few characters who escape towards the end and you'll be thinking oh wow something big is gonna happen when they reappear but in both cases they don't reappear. I won't say what happens to them but the twists within twists and the real sting in the tail that we've come to appreciate and indeed, expect with a Deaver thriller - simply are not apparent.

If this is your first Deaver please don't judge him by this. Read the Bone Collector and then the other Rhyme novels, or to have a break from the paraplegic criminalist try the excellent 'The Blue Nowhere' or 'The Devil's Teardrop'. Give this a miss. He really dropped the ball on this one. It reads as if he just wanted to finish the book quickly, carelessy and grab his paycheque.

Average jungle book
A standalone novel from Deaver with most of the story featuring a female cop and witness to murder escaping from two hitmen and being chased through a jungle.

The story starts off quite tight but the jungle chase drags repetitively and whilst there is a lot of trickery in the chase, with bluffs and double-bluffs, the plot is somewhat unbeliveable in the pitch black night.

Deaver as expected pulls off a few master mis-directions after the jungle chase and you get that 'i didn't see that coming' buzz. He also leaves a few loose ends which I found rather annoying as opposed to intriguing.

Overall, below the high standard we expect from Dever, and an average, read.

Three steps forwards, two steps back
A couple are murdered in a remote house on the edge of Marquette State Park, Wisconsin, and off-duty deputy Brynn McKenzie is called up to look into the reasons behind a one-word 9-1-1 call from the scene. Once there she becomes involved in a shoot-out with the contract killers and manages to escape, minus her weapon, with a younger woman in tow. So begins a night-time pursuit across the unforgivingly mountainous terrain of the park, the killers determined to snuff out the only witnesses to the crime. In real time this takes twelve hours, but it occupies more than 350 pages of a hard-back book that is 439 pages in overall length.

Three steps forwards, two steps back? I say that because the previous Deaver novel I read - THE SLEEPING DOLL - was excellent, one of his best. I have read eighteen of his stories now, so I think it's fair to say that I know his writing well; I know how good he can be, and I know how infuriating he can be with his OTT twists and too-many-endings. Neither accusation can be made against him for this latest release however. It's just 'quite good', with a mildly interesting story, lukewarm characters, and tepid suspense levels. As I said, the bulk of it is made up of two baddies chasing two women in the darkness through the raw landscape of a Wisconsin state park, with any attempts at suspense rather weak and repeatedly knocked down by the hunted women trying but always failing to outwit their pursuers by way of what we Deaver fans know as trademark deceptions and red herrings. So instead of the reader being deceived, it's the criminals themselves, except the smarter of the two (as there always is) manages to second-guess the trickery of the policewoman he is after on every occasion.

Brynn McKenzie's personal life features prominently from start to finish, with her recollections of a violent ex-husband, her attempts to deal with her troublesome twelve-year-old son, and her fragile relationship with her second husband. Much of this was included, I felt, to satisfy a female audience, and although it's generally authentic it wasn't terribly interesting. The same could be said of Brynn herself; this is a stand-alone novel so we won't be seeing her again, but I have to say that she is no less interesting a character than the leading personality of the new series built around kinesics expert Dr Kathryn Dance, first seen at length in THE SLEEPING DOLL. However, what that novel contained - in spades - was an outstandingly well-drawn character in the form of the villain Daniel Pell. In THE BODIES LEFT BEHIND, that reponsibility falls on the shoulders of contract killer Terry Hart, and he fails to deliver the goods. Which means that of all the many characters in this story, quite a few of whom are analysed or explored in detail, there isn't a single one worth remembering or caring for. No-one to like very much, no one to hate very much.

As for the story itself, well it's promoted as a thriller but frankly it isn't deserving of such a title. It's quite interesting, yes, but the night-long pursuit goes on way too long, despite Deaver's best and mainly commendable efforts to describe the unforgiving landscape and the horticultural diversity. I was vaguely reminded of a Lincoln Rhyme novel of nearly a decade back entitled THE EMPTY CHAIR, much of which was dedicated to what it felt like to be in the middle of nowhere, but that story had the charismatic Rhyme in it together with a most unusual counterpart in the Insect Boy. No such treats this time round, sad to report. Deaver is unquestionably a great writer but in my considered judgement he was having a bit of an off-day here. The only real high-point is the excellent imagery, but most of the other elements of a good crime suspense thriller are absent - for characterisation, attention-grabbing suspense, a gripping story, it failed on all counts. Anyone new to Deaver might be suitably unimpressed, which would be a pity because there are some jewels in his back library.

Thankfully, normal service is bound to resume later this year with the return of Lincoln Rhyme.