A Maiden's Grave (Paperback)

by Jeffery Deaver (Author) "Eight gray birds, sitting in dark..." (more)
Key Phrases: barricade site, killing room, rear staging area, Arthur Potter, Charlie Budd, Lou Handy (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
It's said that great minds think alike; apparently great thriller writers do too. Here's the second outstanding novel in as many months to see a busload of schoolchildren kidnapped by maniacs. The first was Mary Willis Walker's Under the Beetle's Cellar (Forecasts, June 12); Deaver's is equally gripping, with the added twist that these kids are deaf. In rural Kansas, an act of kindness launches a nightmare when Mrs. Harstrawn, along with hearing-impaired apprentice teacher Melanie Charrol, stops her busload of deaf schoolgirls at a car wreck, only to be taken hostage by Lou Handy and two other stone-cold killers who've just escaped from prison. Pursued by a state trooper, the captors race with their prey to an abandoned slaughterhouse. There, Arthur Potter, the FBI's foremost hostage negotiator, sets up a command post?but the nightmare intensifies when Handy releases one girl, then shoots her in the back just as she reaches the agent. After further brutalities, Melanie decides to rescue her students herself, tricking the killers with sign language games to convey her plan to her charges. Meanwhile, pressure mounts on Potter as the media get pushy, the local FBI stonewalls, Kansas State hostage rescue units try an end run to grab the glory and an assistant attorney general butts in. Deaver (Praying for Sleep) brilliantly conveys the tensions and deceit of hostage negotiations; he also proves a champion of the deaf, offering poetic insight into their world. Throughout, heartbreakingly real characters keep the wildly swerving plot from going off-track, even during the multiple-whammy twists that bring the novel, Deaver's best to date, to its spectacular finish. 200,000 first printing; $200,000 ad/promo; Literary Guild featured alternate; film rights to Interscope Communications; simultaneous Penguin Audiobook; author tour.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal
A bus carrying eight deaf children and their teachers stops in the middle of the Kansas countryside, a car wreck directly ahead. Soon, three escaped killers rise out of the nearby cornfields and take children and teachers hostage. Pursued by the police, the convicts are forced to hole up in an abandoned slaughterhouse. There they threaten to shoot a child every hour until their demands are met. A 12-hour war of wits begins between FBI hostage expert Arthur Potter and the escapees' leader, Louis Jeremiah Handy. "I aim to get outta here. ...If it means I gotta shoot 'em dead as posts then that's the way it's gonna be," Handy boasts. Potter finds himself "in the middle of the week's media big bang," battling publicity-hungry politicians, trigger-happy cops, and the press as well as the unpredictable killers. This book by the best-selling author of Praying for Sleep (Viking, 1994) starts with a bang, and the tension never lets up. A topnotch thriller with an unexpected kicker at the end.
-?David Keymer, California State Univ., Stanislaus
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Signet (September 5, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451204298
• ISBN-13: 978-0451204295
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (89 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #31,463 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gripping!, December 22, 1999

By	John R. Linnell (New Gloucester, ME United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: A Maiden's Grave (Mass Market Paperback)

Jeffrey Deaver's mind is an interesting place. I'm not sure I would want his dreams after reading this book and The Devil's Teardrop. I also know that I will always look at a hostage situation with much more insight and understanding as a result of having spent 419 pages with the FBI's top negotiator, Arthur Potter. The bad guys are really bad. One of them (Handy) is really deviously clever. You don't ever want to be held hostage by him. The plot twists and turns as deadlines arrive and hostages are in peril, not only from their captors, but from some of the misguided politicians and law enforcement folks on the good guys side. Through all of the plot changes, Art Potter keeps his eye on the target. And just when you thought it was over...it isn't. If you are looking for an author to keep your interest and attention...Mr. Deaver is your man.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Deaver Digs Deep, August 2, 2000

By	"goldcoastreviews" (Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Maiden's Grave (Mass Market Paperback)

Jeffrey Deaver is well recognized for his visciously violent mind. And the ability to dig deep from within and transfer those thoughts to paper has been rewarded with two Edgar nominations. I just read the Amazon review he did with Barrie, and am anticipating his computer thriller presently being molded. As he stated, "Noone will ever go on-line again after reading this one".

In, "A Maiden's Grave", eight deaf girls and their teacher are pulled off a school bus along a wheatlined Kansas road. They are held hostage in an abandoned slaughterhouse by escaped murderer, Lou Handy, and two fellow inmates. The threat--to kill one hostage an hour unless demands are met.

Enter Arthur Potter, the FBI's senior hostage negotiator. Killer Lou Handy may just be Potter's downfall. This book moves like an out of control train. Of course with Mr. Deaver, you never know where those solid serpentine tracks will take you.

Tick-tock Tick-tock--do not miss this emotional crime novel.

other reading suggestions: "The Devils Teardrop" by Jeffrey Deaver and "The Lions Game" by Nelson DeMille

I appreciate your interest & comments--CDS

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A-Mazing...., December 6, 2002

By	L. Quido "quidrock" (Tampa, FL United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Jeffrey Deaver has the uncanny ability to step in and out of the skin of Lincoln Rhyme, the hero of his major series of work. Unlike many authors, who stop a series to branch out into new fields, or others who continue only in the same vein, Deaver takes breaks from the rhythm of Rhyme, sidebars into completely different and compelling plots, and still comes home to entertain with Rhyme again!
"A Maiden's Grave" may just be my favorite Deaver novel. From the title pun to the complete curveball that is thrown at the end of the story, Deaver never stops compelling you to turn the pages.
Set in a gruesome slaughterhouse, where escaped prisoners have taken their helpless girl hostages (many of whom are deaf) AMG lets you get inside the minds of some of the hostages, of the captors, and of Arthur Potter, the FBI's main hostage negotiator. All of the characters are flawed, in rich and sometimes curious ways. While stretching the tale, Deaver transports you to the scene as you can visualize what it would be like to be one of the hostages. Friends tell me that Deaver has done phenomenal research into the world of the deaf, in order to be able to describe what life is like for them, and how the camaraderie of groups of hearing-impaired people can sometimes be a burden, when one decides to become more involved with those who hear. Odd intricacies of plot background are a hallmark of Deaver's stories....but this one is hard to put down.
Enjoy!