The Never Game (A Colter Shaw Novel)

Jeffery Deaver’s latest novel, THE NEVER GAME, introduces a new series character, Colter Shaw. Colter is a home-schooled loner whose dad was an academic and part prophet, part survivalist. He is presented as having been paranoid, but with the proviso that sometimes people are really out to get the (putatively) paranoid. Colter makes his living by (among other things) finding missing persons. He is not a PI and he is not a skip-tracer for bail bondsmen. He is a helpful guy drawn to good causes and he is willing to accept rewards on the installment plan. This is a tad far-fetched, given the financial uncertainties of the job and the uglier forms of competition that Colter will encounter, but this gives him a vagabond, Jack Reacherist quality that many readers will appreciate. Unlike Jack Reacher (but like Brett Battles’ characters), he has individuals a phone call or email away who can search databases, find new jobs, and so on. He does not hitchhike, but rides around on a dirt bike which he tows on the back of his Winnebago. Yes: a crime solver who drives a Winnebago.

Colter is drawn into the story of a young woman who has been abducted and forced to play a real-life role in a popular video game. The person is trapped, has five items which can be used to aid in his/her escape and must then either free him or herself or ‘die with dignity’. Set in Silicon Valley (whose blandness JD nails), this is a story ‘about’ video gaming—its banalities, its attractions, its possible benefits and its definite negatives. Gamers will probably enjoy it. Deaver (as expected) knows all of its finer details, while his protagonist is skeptical of its ‘world’ and its social impact.

The plot is strong and the subsidiary characters interesting. While the protagonist seeks the characters caught in the video game scenarios he is also pursuing a mystery concerning his father. Thus, the personal and the professional intersect in interesting ways. There is the usual Deaver mystification and the reversals upon reversals. The novel held my interest throughout. I prefer the Lincoln Rhyme concept/character but I will look forward to future novels concerning Colter Shaw. The ending clearly opens the door to a sequel; this is not a standalone (or certainly doesn’t look or feel like one). JD remains one of the most skilled and informed writers of our time.

Jeffery Deaver is a must buy, must read author. This new series does not have a clean ending. No editing errors, gratuitous violence or drag-you-down drama.

Intriguing storyline with descriptive, at times lyrical, writing that draws the reader into each scene. Flexible procedures, actions and reactions. Believable characters with distinct personalities. Thought-provoking, memorable and best of all informative dialogue.

'In a far corner of the parking lot were a number of cars, SUVs and pickups. Sitting in and around the vehicles—front seats and lawn chairs—were men in clean, if wrinkled, clothing. Jeans, chinos, polo shirts. Even a few sport coats. Everyone, it seemed, had a laptop. Ninety years ago, during the Great Depression, they would have gathered around a campfire; now they sat before the cold white light of a computer screen. A new breed of hobo.'

'They were reporting on the fact that a congressman had supported a proposal to tax users’ internet traffic over a certain number of gigabytes per day.'

'Foyle was fidgety, not in an insecure way but in the manner of those who are intensely smart and whose fingers and limbs move in time to their spiraling minds.'

“I’m one of three children,” Shaw told her. “Our father was a student of the Old West. I was named after the mountain man John Colter, with the Lewis and Clark Expedition. My kid sister’s Dorion, after Marie Aioe Dorion, one of the first mountain women in North America. She and her two kids survived for two months in the dead of winter in hostile territory—Marie Aioe, not my sister. My older brother, Russell, he was named after Osborne Russell, a frontiersman in Oregon.”

I may re-read this story and always look forward to works by this author.

I've read other books by Deaver over the years, and seen at least one movie based on a novel. I quickly got hooked by this season's "Tracker" show on CBS, so decided to read the book.

The book's ok, but strangely pales in comparison to the show. The lead actor does a great job. He's not as appealing in the book, and his "percentages" shtick is way overdone. Glad it's been dropped out of the show.

Then again, maybe I'm down on the book bc I have no interest in video gaming. And, it takes forever to get to the heart of the story.