Customer Reviews

Bloody River Blues

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I enjoyed this book tremendously. If it hadn't said Jeffery Deaver on the cover, I never would have guessed the author. It doesn't have the pace, the painstaking clues, and the twists and turns in the plot that you expect from Mr. Deaver. What it does have is a fascinating group of characters, tremendous humor (most of it rather dark), and an interesting setting. The hero, John Pellam. is likeable, quirky and reminds me of many characters Harrison Ford has played--the average guy who is pushed too far and resorts to action. Donnie Buffett, the cop who was paralyzed by a gunshot wound early in the book, is no stereotype. His reactions to his terrible injury run the gamut and strike true. The only female in the cast is mysterious, but not in a femme fatale way. You keep wondering "what is she *doing* here??" The setting is Maddox, MO, a economically depressed river town whose only claim to fame is FDR once mentioned it in a Fireside Chat as an example of towns hard-hit by the depression. In this hard-scrabble town, a movie is being made. Hollywood lurks in the background.

I recommend this enjoyable book highly.

John Pellam works as a freelance location scout in the movie industry. His latest job has taken him to the supposedly sleepy town of Maddox, Missouri. He unknowingly bumps into a hired killer minutes before a hit takes place. Also caught up in the murder is a policeman who is shot and wounded. Both the cop and the killer remember Pellam and want to find him, though for obviously very different reasons.

Because a policeman was injured the local police department is very keen that Pellam comes forward as a witness and they become very aggressive when he claims that he didn’t see anything. The killer has assumed that he left behind a witness to his crime, and so takes it upon himself to eliminate the danger.

This early Jeffery Deaver provides a nice little thriller with a few surprises thron in, yet there is nothing that really grabs you and distinguishes it from the many other books in the genre.

This second in the location scout mysteries by Jeffery Deaver, writing as William Jefferies, is one of those books that probably would never been re-released had it not been for Deaver's incredible success of the past five or six years. It doesn't have the complex plot twists or non-stop action Deaver has mastered lately. The hero, John Pellam, is upstaged in this book by Donnie Buffett, an incredibly complex and multi-facted character. Buffett's character dominates the book, while Pellam is left being abused and mistreated by the ever nasty FBI and the local police force. The identity of the mystery blonde is pretty evident, if you remember those film noirs of the forties and fifties; the big boss' reason for wanting Vince Guadia dead is pretty obvious, too. The back and forth mob activities get confusing at first, and then downright, mediocre. The elimination of one of Pellam's friends is also predictable and the hitmen Bales and Steve From end up reminiscent of Laurel and Hardy, or the Two Stooges. I admire Deaver's writing style, which is evident in this book; it's just that it's such a cliche-ridden book, I was disappointed knowing how great Deaver is now!

I'm a huge Jeffery Deaver fan and until this book had never read one of his tomes that I didn't absolutely love. Bloody River Blues was anything but spectacular in my opinion and it was a struggle to even get to the end.

Character development was fair but not the usual style I've come to enjoy from Deaver. I never really knew John Pellam like an intimate friend and was only given tidbits of information about him. Along the way a few more scraps were thrown out but most seemed unimportant. Subcharacters were also underdeveloped - even the villain was so underdeveloped that when the identity was known it was anticlimactic. One of my favorite characters was the paralyzed cop but his story was often short changed - his doctor could have been developed to give so much more to the story but she never was and it left me lacking enthusiasm for the storyline. And his chanting, nutsy wife could have been fun but again she was almost mentioned in passing and nothing more said.

The main plot was fair but not something that would grab the reader and not let go. In fact, I kept putting this book down and it was difficult to muddle my way through it. The subplots were tossed in with no clear reason behind them. For example, the subplot that has John Pellam trying to sell his own movie script so he can make it into a film himself had me scratching my head and saying, "So what!" I really didn't care and didn't see what relevance it had in the big picture. The other subplots were similar and left me wondering why they took up page space.

Overall this book was just a tad below average but for a Jeffery Deaver book to even be average is a very unusual thing. His books usually grab me from the beginning and I lose sleep trying to finish them. If anything, BLOODY RIVER BLUES put me to sleep! I'd definitely skip this one and read anything else by Deaver.

The 2nd in the Location Scout series, BLOODY RIVER BLUES, starts out like most good mysteries...Pellam literally gets caught in the middle of a hit on a person walking the street. When the dust settles, 2 people have been killed and a cop crippled.

Pellam befriends the cop and together they try and put together the who's and why's. Deaver strengthens Pellam's character and lets him fight through all kinds of different scenarios to reach the truth. From beginning to end, Deaver never shys away from what Pellam has to do and draws into his world all sorts of bad guys, good guys and people who are definitely in the middle.

Deaver delivers another strong mystery and you will be guessing up to the bone shattering climax as to whom did what. Jeffery Deaver triumphs again!

As many books the beginning of this one is excellent. But as you go over and over it gets boring and boring. The book has four stories that at the end will meet and all of them are stark boring. And at the end... just skip it. Better'd be if you skip this book.

John Pellam, while scouting locations in Missouri for a movie, due to a casual incident, is taken as the key witness of a street murder that leaves two people dead and a cop paralyzed, from then on he is wanted by the Feds and the boss of the gang of thugs who committed that crime.

Although I liked the other episodes of the location scout series, I was not pleased with this one, I have experienced a slow cold boring novel with a poor plot and shallow characters with the exception of Donnie Buffet, the crippled cop. Suspense was not well recreated when it has to be done and I could count just only one interesting twist that turns the whole story the other way, now Pellam goes after the perpetrators of the crime (the Feds, the thugs) , trying to find who was behind that act and why.

This novel was written around or before 1993, it is clear that at that time Mr. Deaver was polishing his writing skills in order to become the excellent writer that he is today. So I conclude that William Jefferies and Jeffery Deaver are both the same "individual" but two different "writers"

If you are looking for a good location scout mystery series novel, better try another attempt like Shallow Graves, is in my opinion the best of the trilogy (Shallow Graves - Bloody River Blues - Hell's Kitchen)

John Pellam is a character from a 3-book series written relatively early in Deaver's career under the pseudonym William Jefferies. Pellam works for movie companies as a "location scout", traveling the world to find general locales appropriate for filming - or in this case, very specific Missouri scenes to suit the director of a low-budget gangster film. Early in the story, Pellam is walking home from buying beer when he witnesses a murder. The trouble is, he doesn't see the perpetrator, only the victim - but all book long, the police authorities, and the actual crooks, are convinced he knows whodunit; and so Pellam is subject of all manner of harassment until at the end, and after several more killings, we finally all learn what's what.

So in this tepid thriller, we get like two good chapters at the start and two more at the end, but a lot of tedious filler in between. We'd have to rate this novel pretty low in entertainment value; and as Deaver fans, are glad he picked up the pace when he started authoring under his real name!

Like I said in my feedback this book was in great shape and arrived in a timely manner with no damages. I will be a return buyer. Thanks so much.

Bloody River Blues by Jeffery Deaver gives the reader what they expect from a Deaver novel. There are lots of suspects and motives to sort out and though some seem a little "ho, hum" in the end it all matters. The book has a good pace, but you can put it down and pick it up again when you have time to read, unlike some of Deaver's work that cost you sleep because you can't put them down.