The Body of David Hayes - Hardcover

Pearson, Ridley

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786867256 ISBN 13: 9780786867257

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing, 2004

Synopsis

Years ago, Lou Boldt's wife Liz had an affair with David Hayes, a young computer specialist at the bank where she is an executive. When Liz ended the relationship after reconciling with Lou, Hayes engaged in a daring embezzlement scheme. Now, years later, Hayes is trying to retrieve the money he hid for the Russian mob and contacts Liz to try to gain access to the bank's mainframe. Liz is torn between wanting to protect the bank and needing to protect her family. Boldt, ripped apart by the discovery of his wife's possible blackmail, must skate a delicate line between his incompatible roles as determined detective and jealous husband if he is to find the money while exposing and stopping Hayes.

Intensely involving and revealing new aspects of Boldt's emotional makeup never before seen, The Body of David Hayes is Ridley's most gripping and engaging thriller yet.

About this title

About the Author

Ridley Pearson is the award-winning co-author, along with Dave Barry, of Peter and the Starcatchers, Peter and the Shadow Thieves, Peter and the Secret of Rundoon, Peter and the Sword of Mercy, Escape From the Carnivale, Cave of the Dark Wind, Blood Tide, and Science Fair. In addition to Kingdom Keepers: Disney After Dark, Kingdom Keepers: Disney at Dawn, Kingdom Keepers: Disney in Shadow, and Kingdom Keepers: Power Play, he is also the author of the young adult thrillers Steel Trapp: The Challenge and Steel Trapp: The Academy. He has written more than twenty best-selling crime novels, including Killer View and Killer Weekend. He was the first American to be awarded the Raymond Chandler/Fulbright Fellowship in Detective Fiction at Oxford University.

Reviews

Lt. Lou Boldt is still top cop in the ninth installment of Pearson's Seattle Police Department series. (Undercurrents; No Witnesses; etc.). This time the case involves Boldt's wife, Liz, who's weathered many a storm throughout her marriage: chemotherapy, a separation, the kidnapping of their daughter and now the revelation of her affair with David Hayes, a computer whiz at the bank where she's an executive. Hayes embezzled $17 million and went to jail, but now he's free and the never-recovered money has both cops and robbers interested in his whereabouts. Liz had nothing to do with the theft, but Russian mobster Gen. Yasmani Svengrad (known as the Sturgeon General because he's the head of a caviar importing company) thinks the money belongs to him, and she's the key to getting it back. It's all extremely complicated, but with the help of Sgt. John LaMoia and Boldt's former lover police, psychologist Daphne Matthews, who is now living with LaMoia, Boldt hopes not only to solve the case but to protect his wife's reputation and keep his marriage from foundering. The difficulty is that Boldt's personal problems, which mount to near soap opera levels, tend to distract from the more interesting crime elements. Pearson's uneven writing too often veers into the mawkish when attempting to reveal Boldt's inner feelings ("She touched him once lightly on the arm as he opened the door. The tenderness of that gesture cut him to his core and he felt emotions ripple through him"). Pearson wisely eschews the sentimentalism as he builds to a climactic finale in which Boldt cleverly manipulates friend and foe alike to save Liz and serve justice.
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Pearson found a perfect groove early on for his much-acclaimed Lou Boldt-Daphne Matthews series, and it has been running flawlessly through eight installments. He changes focus this time, moving forensic psychologist Matthews to the background and elevating the wife of Seattle police Lieutenant Boldt to center stage. What results is a novel that adds depth and resonance to the ongoing series but that, as a stand-alone thriller, proves slightly less galvanizing than usual, which is not to say that there isn't plenty of pulse-pounding suspense and lovingly laid-out procedural detail. The plot revolves around the reappearance of David Hayes, with whom Liz Boldt had an affair and who embezzled millions from the bank where she is a high-ranking officer. Hayes is out of prison and needs Liz to access the bank's mainframe if he is to recover the embezzled millions, now dangling in cyberspace, and avoid the wrath of the Russian mob. In order to find the money and keep Liz out of harm's way, Boldt must balance the contradictory roles of jealous husband and objective investigator. Give Pearson credit for turning away, albeit temporarily, from the edgy relationship between Boldt and Matthews and tackling instead a much trickier topic: the sinews that hold together a long-term marriage. No easy task for any writer, especially one who must simultaneously face the plot-driven demands of the high-octane thriller. Mission accomplished, even if the plot burns a slightly lower-grade fuel this time. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0786867256
• ISBN 13: 9780786867257
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352