Jeffery Deaver’s most famous detective is Lincoln Rhymes and we have indeed reviewed many books of that series here. For instance, see The Kill Room. He has also written books with other heroes and for an example of that, see The Pain Hunter. This book belongs to the later category. Let us go to the story.
Matthews is having lunch with Colter Shaw and is worried that a woman, Evie for Eveline, has been kidnapped. Evie called a friend and said she needs to travel a while but Matthews suspects that her abductor made her call the friend. If Evie had called him, Matthews, he would have immediately known she was in trouble, he claimed.
Evie had gone to an artist’s retreat outside Chicago, not unusual. But she did not come home on Sunday night, which was.
Shaw agrees to take on the case but he has a suspicion, knowing that Matthews did not share her passion for art even though he loved her, that she has just gone off with a friend who is more to her taste. When Shaw checks with the galleries she usually frequents, he is told that she had gone to an artist’s convention with Jason, “her boyfriend” to an artists’ retreat called Muncie. A studio owner called David Goodman tells this to him.
Colter now decides that Eveline has simply found a friend more to her taste. He is tempted to just walk away as this is not a missing persons case anymore . But he decides to go and track her down anyway to satisfy his curiosity – not to persuade her to come back or anything.
He then goes to Muncie and asks around. There he finds his car has a flat tire. While he is puzzling over this, two burley folks get him and take him. He meets Evie Fontaine (to give her her full name) and her ‘boyfriend’ James. He learns that she ran away because Matthew was an abuser and was violent with her. When he finally threatened to break her (painting) finger or blind her, she decided it is time to run. And James is not her lover – he is gay. He simply took her away to keep her from danger.
She hysterically pleads with Colter not to betray her to his client, the husband. He agrees, but after checking out her story. She says she has proof and takes him to an industrial shed which is her studio. When he gets there, he finds himself trapped. David Goodman has Matthew bound and in terror and Evie is pointing Matthew’s pistol at him.
When John gets there with Colter’s rented car, Evie shoots him dead without batting an eyelid. The plan was to frame Colter, Matthew and John as an altercation gone wrong. David himself seems to have been an unwitting pawn.
The tables turn again and again. This is Jeffery Deaver’s speciality in all of his books.
I will leave the ‘How does it end?’ part to avoid spoilers. Like some of his other books, this one also is really a short story masquerading as a book.
7/10
— Krishna
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