The Never Game

Pretty cookie-cutter take on a consultant/investigator who works parallel to law enforcement premise.  This one is the standard kidnapping plot and the main character is only slightly interesting, typically only when he is envoking his ‘unique' trait of calculating the probabilities of each conclusion in his head.  Writing seems unnecessarily long sentence to sentence, for whatever that means.  Gets a little better when the story widens and the killer's M.O. is seemingly revealed, but then disappointed that the true motive and events were so basic. Still not sure what The Never Game actually is or refers to.

I think I would have given this four stars, but I have lived in “Silicon Valley” my whole life and I have never heard anyone refer to it as “the SV”. And most of us who live here don't even say “silicon valley” as often as these characters did. Also, San Jose is not a county. And it's “EA” not “Electronic Arts”. I mean, it is Electronic Arts, but who says that?! It was stuff like that that clues you into the fact that the author wrote about a setting he's not familiar with and did minimal research on besides looking at maps.

Otherwise, this wasn't bad. Colt is a more likeable character than Lincoln Rhyme so yay for that. The mystery surrounding his father and Colt's upbringing is intriguing enough to continue the series for me.

Read this because I saw that the television series was based on a book series. I found the book to be entertaining and the subject matter of video gaming turned into a method of murder was interesting. It’s not a world I know much about. The location Colter hails from is of some interest because my son and daughter-in-law live in the mountains there. There were several times I thought many authors would have ended the storyline there or there; Deaver did not, he kept digging and I liked that. I will read the next in the series for sure.

By the way, The “Never” Game - Colts father had a list of rules he taught his children that began with “Never”.