Bloody River Blues: A Location Scout Mystery [Large Print] [Hardcover]

William Jefferies (Author), Jeffery Deaver (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2001

While scouting out film locations for a "Bonnie and Clyde" style film, former Hollywood insider John Pellam finds himself neck-deep in a plot more lurid than any film. Original.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

John Pellam, scouting locations for a new film in a small town in Missouri, inadvertently witnesses a double homicide and some serious gunplay that left a cop paralyzed. He didn't see the guy who ordered the killings, but the police don't believe him. The U.S. attorney who thinks he knows who was behind the murders has bet his career on Pellam's identification of a criminal the feds have been trying to nail for years. They'll do anything to get Pellam's cooperation, including threatening his new girlfriend, shutting down the movie, and keeping Pellam from inking a deal to get his own film made. That project is Pellam's ticket back to the top of the heap in Hollywood, a perch he fell off of when he supplied the drugs that killed his best friend. The cops want Pellam's testimony, the mob boss wants him permanently silenced, and the film's director wants him to finish the job he's been paid to do. But first Pellam has to find his way out of the traps they've all set for him, and he does it with style, wit, and a self-deprecating charm that makes him a hero to everyone--well, almost everyone.

William Jefferies, who usually writes under the better-known nom de plume of Jeffery Deaver, has a couple of other Location Scout mysteries to his name (Shallow Graves, Hell's Kitchen). Pocket Books has reissued them as Deaver titles ("writing as William Jefferies"), but regardless of their provenance, they feature topnotch writing, snappy dialogue, solid pacing, and excellent characterization. Bloody River Blues was overlooked by Deaver's fans when it first came out eight years ago. Now that the publisher has cleared up the mystery of who actually wrote it, it ought to get the attention it deserves. --Jane Adams --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Movie location scout John Pellam is working in Maddox, Mo., when he goes out for a case of beer. This innocuous outing lands him in big trouble when his beer collides with the door of a parked car whose occupants subsequently commit a rubout. Next thing he knows, Pellam finds himself being pursued by the killers, who fear Pellam can identify them; by the local police, because a cop was shot during the rub-out; and by the FBI, who think the murder was related to a racketeering case. Vincent Gaudia, the man who was killed, had turned witness against his boss, Peter Crimmins, who is wanted on RICO charges. The official bag of tricks used by the feds and police against Pellam includes interrogation, threats of prosecution on false charges, disruption of Pellam's life and business and hints that the film he's working on could be shut down. Jefferies ( Shallow Graves ) adds a twist that gives Pellam the last laugh while he makes his point about the baseness of the so-called good guys. Although the book works technically, reading a tale so replete with unpleasantness is still no picnic.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Press (June 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0783893094
• ISBN-13: 978-0783893099
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,727,225 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jeffery Deaver was born outside of Chicago in 1950. His father was an advertising copywriter and his mother was a homemaker. He has one younger sister who writes novels for teenagers ' Julie Reece Deaver.

Deaver wrote his first book ' which consisted of two entire chapters ' when he was eleven, and he's been writing ever since. An award-winning poet and journalist, he has also written and performed his own songs around the country. After receiving a Bachelor of Journalism degree from the University of Missouri, Deaver worked as a magazine writer, then, to gain the background needed to become a legal correspondent for The New York Times or Wall Street Journal, he enrolled at Fordham Law School. After graduation he decided to practice law for a time and worked for several years as an attorney for a large Wall Street firm. It was during his long commute to and from the office that he began writing the type of fiction he enjoyed reading: suspense novels. In 1990 he started to write full time.

The author of twenty-two novels, Deaver has been nominated for six Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America, an Anthony award, a Gumshoe Award, and is a three-time recipient of the Ellery Queen Reader's Award for Best Short Story of the Year. In 2001, he won the W.H. Smith Thumping Good Read Award for his Lincoln Rhyme novel The Empty Chair. In 2004, he was awarded the Crime Writers Association of Great Britain's Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award for Garden Of Beasts and the Short Story Dagger for "The Weekender." Translated into 35 languages, his novels have appeared on a number of bestseller lists around the world, including the New York Times, the London Times and the Los Angeles Times. The Bone Collector was a feature release from Universal Pictures, starring Denzel Washington as Lincoln Rhyme. A Maiden's Grave was made into an HBO film retitled Dead Silence, starring James Garner and Marlee Matlin.

Jeff has also released two collections of his short stories, called Twisted and More Twisted.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars DIFFERENT DEAVER, December 23, 2000

By 

sweetmolly (RICHMOND, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bloody River Blues (Location Scout) (Mass Market Paperback)

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.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Witness To Murder, February 24, 2002

By 

Untouchable (Sydney, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bloody River Blues (Location Scout) (Mass Market Paperback)

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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars SINGING THE BLUES, May 23, 2001

By 

Michael Butts (Berkeley Springs, WV USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bloody River Blues (Location Scout) (Mass Market Paperback)

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!