Review: Solitude Creek

Solitude Creek by Jeffery Deaver
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

One of Mr. Deaver's downright freakiest books yet - mostly because of the killer's truly deadly M.O. You know how you're not supposed to shout "Fire!" in a crowded theater? The killer in this book, one of the sickest little puppies James Patterson didn't come up with, weaponizes that to orchestrate mass killings by terrified stampede. No crowded venue is safe - small concerts, book readings (that one is particularly diabolical, because he manages to get the crowd to jump through a window and fall three stories to a rocky oceanside below), amusement parks...let's just say, it was a pretty bad idea to read this one while waiting for Jurassic World to start at the drive-in.

And then there's the subplot involving a series of hate crimes against Jews, blacks, gays, etc. Neo-Nazis or KKK, right? Wrong. The identities of the vandals will shock you, and then you'll actually feel bad for them. And you'll also wish Deaver could have devoted about 30-50 more pages to resolving their storyline.

Well, that's it - the most memorable Deaver book since XO, easily. It'll probably be a while before Kathryn Dance shows up again, but I'll be waiting all the same.

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