The final twist

Colter Shaw is a reward seeker. People offer rewards for the return of missing loved ones, for example, and Shaw attempts to track down the missing person and claim the reward. He's a private investigator without a license. The son of a survivalist, he's smart, well trained in operating covertly, and he never gives up. It's perhaps appropriate to view the Shaw novels--The Never Game (2019) and The Goodbye Man (2020) preceded this one--as one long, continuing story. While in each book Shaw is after a different reward, he is also trying to solve a mystery from his own past, one that Deaver introduced in the first novel: How did his father's investigation into a large, secretive company lead to his death? Determined to bring this company to its knees, Shaw edges ever closer to full-on vigilantism. Although the Shaw novels are neither as exciting nor as cleverly constructed as Deaver's Lincoln Rhyme novels, this one is clearly the best of the series so far.

Part one of MWA Grand Master Deaver's subpar third thriller featuring professional reward-seeker Colter Shaw (after 2020's The Goodbye Man), titled "The Mission," includes the statement: "Time until the family dies: fifty-two hours." The explanation for this countdown comes out gradually. At a house in San Francisco, Shaw is looking for evidence his murdered father left behind about BlackBridge Corporate Solutions, whose machinations include flooding select neighborhoods with cheap drugs to drive down the price of real estate for predatory developers. His search almost proves fatal, and he narrowly escapes death from BlackBridge operatives when his estranged older brother, Russell, intervenes. A bad guy Russell kills carries a note indicating that a "kill order" has been placed on someone with the initials SP and SP's entire family. Neither the race to save those targeted within 52 hours nor the Shaw brothers' campaign to take down BlackBridge is as creative as the plots of Deaver's best work. The result is more familiar than surprising. Agent: Deborah Schneider, Gelfman Schneider Literary. (May)

A third case--make that flock of cases--for Colter Shaw, who finds lost people for the reward money. Soon after Shaw finds evidence that, shortly before his death years ago, his father, Ashton, had been on the trail of some kind of damning information the late BlackBridge Corporate Solutions researcher Amos Gahl had gotten on his employer, his long-estranged brother, Russell Shaw, interrupts his own clandestine undercover work and turns up to help Shaw find that information and bring down BlackBridge. Their enemies--BlackBridge founder and CEO Ian Helms, his fixer Ebbitt Droon, grandmotherly killer Irena Braxton, and all the company's vast resources--are potent, but not nearly as potent as the array of switchbacks Shaw and his brother will have to negotiate as they search for the mysterious Endgame Sanction of 1906. The company's deep-laid malfeasance is closely entangled with the schemes of BlackBridge client Jonathan Stuart Devereux, head of Banyan Tree Holdings. Along the way, Shaw finds evidence that the family of someone identified only as "SP" is slated for extermination and adds saving them to his to-do list. And undeterred by the firepower arrayed against him, he decides to take on the more traditional job of finding recovering addict Tessy Vasquez for the piddling reward her mother, undocumented, overworked Maria Vasquez, is offering, and his search naturally gets tangled up with everything else. The caseload is every bit as miscellaneous as it sounds, but Deaver spices his kitchen sink with so many red herrings, misleading clues, bait-and-switches, and double-fakes that you'll be hard-pressed to identify that final twist. Enough surprises, complications, and deceptions for three novels and half a dozen short stories. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Colter Shaw is a reward seeker. People offer rewards for the return of missing loved ones, for example, and Shaw attempts to track down the missing person and claim the reward. He's a private investigator without a license. The son of a survivalist, he's smart, well trained in operating covertly, and he never gives up. It's perhaps appropriate to view the Shaw novels—The Never Game (2019) and The Goodbye Man (2020) preceded this one—as one long, continuing story. While in each book Shaw is after a different reward, he is also trying to solve a mystery from his own past, one that Deaver introduced in the first novel: How did his father's investigation into a large, secretive company lead to his death? Determined to bring this company to its knees, Shaw edges ever closer to full-on vigilantism. Although the Shaw novels are neither as exciting nor as cleverly constructed as Deaver's Lincoln Rhyme novels, this one is clearly the best of the series so far. Copyright 2021 Booklist Reviews.

Colter Shaw, reward seeker and professional tracker, is in San Francisco on a personal case in his third adventure. Based on a map and a detailed letter from his murdered father, Colter is searching for a piece of evidence that could destroy the nefarious company BlackBridge. Dealing in everything from corporate espionage to "gerrymandering by narcotics," BlackBridge is responsible for a multitude of deaths, including that of Colter's father. When initial clues lead Colter to the Stanford Library of Business and Commerce, he is met by Droon and Braxton, his violent adversaries from the previous books. The action intensifies when Colter accidentally stumbles upon a kill order for an unnamed family that is facing certain execution; he only has two days to save them. With the clock ticking and a wholly unexpected partner emerging from his past, Colter must secure the evidence and protect those he loves from ruthless enemies. VERDICT With its plot picking up immediately after the action of The Goodbye Man, this book will be most appreciated by those who have read the previous entries. Colter's past and his complicated family all feature prominently, adding a rich and compelling layer in this worthy addition to the series.—Amy Nolan, St. Joseph P.L., MI

Part one of MWA Grand Master Deaver's subpar third thriller featuring professional reward-seeker Colter Shaw (after 2020's The Goodbye Man), titled "The Mission," includes the statement: "Time until the family dies: fifty-two hours." The explanation for this countdown comes out gradually. At a house in San Francisco, Shaw is looking for evidence his murdered father left behind about BlackBridge Corporate Solutions, whose machinations include flooding select neighborhoods with cheap drugs to drive down the price of real estate for predatory developers. His search almost proves fatal, and he narrowly escapes death from BlackBridge operatives when his estranged older brother, Russell, intervenes. A bad guy Russell kills carries a note indicating that a "kill order" has been placed on someone with the initials SP and SP's entire family. Neither the race to save those targeted within 52 hours nor the Shaw brothers' campaign to take down BlackBridge is as creative as the plots of Deaver's best work. The result is more familiar than surprising. Agent: Deborah Schneider, Gelfman Schneider Literary. (May)