Customer Reviews

Deceit

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Tom Valle, once a star reporter for a popular paper, is trying to put his life, and career back on track when his boss assigns him the story of a traffic accident, but this is no ordinary story...

It seems to be like every other car crash, but one driver is left dead, and things on the surface just don't look right to Tom. As Tom starts investigating the "accident" he finds it may not have been an accident at all. Knowing this could be the story to bring his career back on track, Tom dives head-first into the story and uncovers a conspiracy of corruption and murder...a conspiracy that someone will stop at nothing to keep from being exposed.

'Deceit' starts off fast, and then slows down as the plot develops. Things get crazy as the main character starts to uncover the conspiracy plot...a simple accident begins the novel, and there are some nice plot twists along the way, but the connection to an ages-old cover up makes the novel fall apart. James Siegel's two previous novels, 'Detour' and 'Derailed', were well-written, original page-turners, and even though his newest novel continues the trend of being well-written,and original it falls flat in the page-turning department.

Nick Gonnella

This was my first Siegel novel, and after reading this one I had to get my hands on another one, which I ended up getting the same day. I couldn't wait to pick this one back up every time I had to lay it down. Great story, one of those that brings to light a small detail from 80 pages ago that you wish you would have paid more attention to. Everything written in the book has a purpose - there are not pages and pages of mindless details that mean nothing to the story. This is the work of a truly great writer and I can't wait to dive into the next book by him I've got. The only thing for me that kept me from giving the book 5 stars is that it does read kind of choppy in some parts. Like when you have a thought that indirectly leads to another - thats hard to put on paper, and even more hard for a reader to exactly follow. All in all though a great read, very entertaining and suspenseful - certainly recommend getting this one.

Let me start off by saying that Deceit holds your attention from beginning to end, and is a worthwhile read. That being said, Deceit is not as good as Detour and, in particular, Derailed. The strengh of Deceit is Siegel's writing style moreso than the plot itself. Siegel has developed a main character that despite his faults, is interesting and likable. The plot, which involves a disgraced journalist investigating an auto accident and ultimately leads to his unovering the scoop of a lifetime, is also interesting, albeit it a bit far-fetched. What keeps me from giving Deceit more than a 3 1/2 star rating is that while Siegel allows his protagonist to come up with the solution to the mystery, Siegel doesn't present clearly enough to the reader (or at least this reader) as to how the "hero" was able to uncover the specific facts behind the solution. While, as I said, Deceit is not Siegel's best book, it is enjoyable, and I am looking forward to his next book.

If the other reviewers are right and Siegel's prior work is even better, I can't wait to read those novels. Siegel kept me half a step behind every minute, as his narrator Tom Valle sought redemption and tried to figure out what had happened in the flooded town north of his home of exile. Characterization was terrific for everybody, the narrator was legitimately sympathetic and suspiciously unreliable to keep me wondering, and everyone in the story acted in ways that were completely believable. This is a fantastic story.

Being on top and them tumbling to the bottom in disgrace can result in all kinds of emotions - fear, pain, embarrassment, anger and, for some, a determination to climb back up at any cost. The latter was the case with Tom Valle, a once respected and highly paid journalist. He'd had it all but once it was discovered that he had fabricated some 50 stories he's down to nothing. Nothing, that is, but a lowless job at a small news paper in Littleton, California, probably the only paper in the Western Hemisphere that would hire him.

It seemed for a while that this was the end of the road for Tom until there was a head-on collision on a deserted highway that left one driver dead. Tom smells a story, maybe even a story big enough to redeem him. He begins to investigate and finds only one lie after another.

Obviously, there's a cover-up. Tom is determined to discover the truth but he's alone in his search as he's already made up 50 stories too many.

Voice performer Dylan Baker has numerous film and television roles to his credit as well as accolades for his audio book narrations. He is the voice of Tom, telling the story from his perspective, injecting appropriate doses of suspense as well as leaving listeners pulling for a pretty imperfect hero.

- Gail Cooke

Each book I read by James Siegel is just not quite as good as the one before it. Derailed was one of my all-time favorite books. Detour was okay, if not a little boring. In Deceit, I was so bothered by the fact the main character suddenly seemed to know the specific and secret details without explaining to the reader HOW he got all his facts that I couldn't just sit back and enjoy the story. Suddenly, and almost randomly, the beginning of a new chapter starts with a story told by the author describing in detail the sequence of events that has really occurred. So how did he make these discoveries? Based on everything else he wrote about, there is no way he would suddenly make this leap to enlightenment. And even if he did explain how he gathered all these top secret facts, the whole thing was based on a sequence of events occurring that would not have necessarily happened that way in real life. I also was extremely disappointed with the ending. All in all, I'm sorry I wasted my time with this book.

It's hard to believe that DECEIT is only James Siegel's fourth work of fiction. He is perhaps best known for DERAILED, a memorable novel adapted into a film that was, for various reasons, somewhat less than the sum of its parts. His other works to date --- DETOUR and EPITAPH --- are equally unforgettable. The common thread running through Siegel's work is his ability to craft a seemingly unsolvable puzzle or incomprehensible conundrum and then fashioning a solution or explanation. The sticky wickets that Siegel fashions are so interesting that the reader is in a forgiving mood if the ultimate explanation doesn't possess a level of plausibility equal to that of the puzzle. That's okay; it's fiction, and more often than not audiences want to be entertained.

DECEIT puts his methodology to the test, with somewhat mixed results. Tom Valle is a former star reporter who built his career on sand, fabricating dozens of stories before being caught and reduced to a pariah. Through a somewhat unlikely connection, Valle lands a job at a small, usually daily newspaper in Littleton, California, where he is relegated to covering human interest stories and writing local color pieces. When a head-on collision occurs, however, Valle's life is slowly turned upside down. The automobile accident results in a fatality; what should be a simple if tragic event leads Valle into what may be the case of his career. He soon finds himself alone in an investigation of which neither the police nor his newspaper have much interest.

Siegel does a competent job of setting things up and then unloading a quiet but forceful revelatory wallop on Valle and the reader approximately midway through the book. Valle slowly comes to realize that he's being led, by persons unknown, to a conspiracy of secrets that has been hidden for decades, even as he's pursued and threatened off of his investigation by others.

DECEIT is not Siegel's best work --- that novel has yet to be written but surely will be --- though it contains all of the stellar elements that have made his prior books memorable. The major problem here is Valle, who is largely an unlikable, unsympathetic character, even when his intentions are honorable. In addition to subverting his profession, Valle is a hypocrite: he ridicules a local gun dealer, even as he purchases a revolver from the man in order to defend himself against pursuers. He also somehow retains the temerity to equate his situation with that of the ill-fated "60 Minutes" National Guard story. There are similarities --- the inverted pyramid is not a good model for investigative reporting --- but none of which Valle would care to be reminded.

What ultimately saves DECEIT is Siegel's writing style, which carries the reader along on a journey that is at times breathtaking and always entertaining, even if the final destination doesn't match the trip and one of the traveling companions is less than desirable.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

Deceit was a good, but not great story. Siegel has a gift for creating great characters with plenty of depth. His protagonist in this story, like the one in Derailed, is a likable, smart guy with a flaw that's his undoing. Siegel's dialog is excellent. Read it aloud and you'll find yourself performing... that's the sign of a good storyteller. Why only 3 stars? Deceit was a little weaker than Derailed. There were a couple of places where I had to suspend reality in order to make it work. Then there was the cardinal sin of getting the details of a 1960s TV show wrong. The sheriff calls Tom Valle, "Lucas" as in Lucas McCord, the disgraced Army officer accused of cowardice in the TV show Branded. He's saying that Tom is a liar-- which he is, or has been. Neat touch that I liked. But then Siegel incorrectly refers to the battle where McCord was accused of running as Bull Run, NOT Bitter Creek. Wrong battle, wrong war. There are a few things you have to get right-- references to guns, music, movies and TV shows. I had to fight not to put it down. I'm glad I didn't.

James Siegel has created an amazing book with such complicated detail in the plot. I have read this book twice to understand the details of it. I loved Derailed but this book has such an intricate plot and you really don't know all the pieces of the puzzle ... or should I say connect the dots .... until they come together at the end. When our newspaper reporter finally puts it all together ... well some of the pieces you don't see coming. When he finally reveals everythihg... you are wondering what hit you. I highly recommend this book for the suspense detail. It builds slowly but steadily and then what a ride. Stay with it and you will be glad you did.

James Siegel is a talented thriller writer. His previous novels, "Derailed" and "Detour" attest to that. So I had high hopes after I picked up "Deceit". Let's just say those hopes were not fulfilled at all. In fact, I was left very disappointed.

There are several problems with the novel. Firstly, it takes ages to get going. I had to read well over 100 pages before I began feeling the plot flesh out. Secondly,it is poorly paced. Thirdly, the plot is simply ludicrous and so utterly confusing as to be almost unintelligible; way out nonsense about a dishonest, former investigative journalist being purposely set up by shadowy government operatives to uncover a massive nuclear accident that wiped out a fly-speck Californian desert town in 1954. This 70 megaton nuclear explosion was covered up at the time by a dam burst, to cover the fact that an entire town and its population had been wiped off the map. Yeah, right. To call the plot far-fetched does not go far enough, it is beyond anything that could be dreamed up by the wildest, Oliver Stone-esque conspiracy theorist.

I do not recommend this novel. It is clunky and preposterous and hugely disappointing. I hope Mr Siegel returns to form in his next novel.