Customer Reviews

A Maiden's Grave

5 star:		(57)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

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.

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!

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

This is one of Deaver's best works. The plot is very strong, with many twists. The setting is almost another character in this book. The descriptions of the slaugterhouse make this a disturbing read, and helps the reader see horror these girls go through. The dialogue is excellent, as is typical of Deaver. Most author's wouldn't attempt to write dialogue that included 9 deaf characters, but Deaver pulls it off in stunning fashion.

The only thing that kept this book from being my favorite Deaver book was the characters. They are all very strong and very well defined (especially Melanie, Arthur, and Lou), but there wasn't one that I could identify with.

Read this book. It is excellent, and I guarantee you won't be disappointed. But also don't miss my personal favorite Deaver novel The Devil's Teardrop.

There are many novels written with kidnapped children as their central story line, but this book certainly leads the pack and stands out as a gut wrenching thriller. A Maiden's Grave is an interesting take on hostage negotiations and Deaver really makes it work. You feel the tension the hostages feel and the pressure the negotiator goes through. You can feel the terror and bravery of the characters. It is so wonderfully well written that the story is almost palpable. I look forward to reading more books written by this author. Great thriller...

I found this book to be very intense and nerve wrecking. Deaver keeps the reader at the edge of their seat (is that only a movie watching term?) and eager to find out what happens next.

I liked the general ending a lot (the last 50 pages), but the very ending seemed kind of far fetched - meaning the way Deaver concludes the story of the bad guys. Also, the romance between the deaf assistant teacher and the negiotiator was beyond stupid and should have been left out.

It was a while ago that i read this book, and it was my first of Deavers. Since then i have bought every single book he has ever written, and have read all but a few of them.

This is simple an outstanding book. it is the best hostage thriller i have ever read, and that i expect i ever will.

Deaver mounts the tension beautifully...every now and then it gets so high that you literally feel it as he lets a little of the tension out...it's a wonderful display of suspense writing.

Deavers characters are vivid, and his characterisation is wonderfully subtle. they are well rounded and very human. Arthur Potter is a compelling hero, and his "invisble" relationship with Melanie is brilliantly done. the way they feel connected to each other during the hostage negotiation even though they have never met is wonderful. I felt very moved.

As well as being a very suspenseful book, this is also an extremely emotional one. there are times when you really feel very sorry for the characters, and an insipid hate for their characters. I felt particularly sorry for poor Donna Hawstrawn. I really wanted this book to keep going, just so that i could see if she would be okay...there are also a couple of moments in the book when you might be moved to tears. there are some devastating events, which really tug at you.

Deavers portrayal of the Deaf is completely unpatronising. He is extremely good at writing about people with what might be termed "handicaps", and in this case i think he was at hsi most sucessful. He wrote about it in such a way that you did feel slight sympathy, but moreover you felt proud of these people. Also, i felt a strange but strong urge to actually really try and get a feel for what it might be like to be Deaf...

This is a brilliant book, with a good twist at the end. good characters, emotional writing, stunning suspense, and an excellent hostage thriller. Deaver is simply the best.

I'd have to consider myself a "newbie" to Jeffrey Deavers, as I've only read four of his books, but am definitely a fan. His writing is intense, the stories draw you in from the beginning and won't let go, and the endings are always full of surprises. Well, that's what I thought about all of the books, except this one - Maiden's Grave - it didn't grab my attention but let me wander for about 50 or so pages. When the action did pick up, it was intriguing and then lax - definitely not a book that you couldn't put down on the coffee table. This one actually took me a while to finish.

The story begins with a busload of deaf students riding along the highway between the Kansas wheat fields. The reader isn't sure exactly what they're doing, except they are going to a type of recital, the purpose of the trip is eluded to but never clarified until much later in the book. The bus comes on the scene of a fatality accident so the bus driver and teacher leave the bus to see if they can help the victims. But this wreck was no accident, and the students and adults are soon thrown into a nightmare.

Three escaped convicts take the eight deaf students and two adults hostage and hold them in an abandoned slaughterhouse a few miles from the accident scene. The leader of the thugs, Lou Handy, is intelligent and seems to have thought of all possibilities. The other two are more hard-core - Shepard Wilcox is young and doesn't blink if he needs to kill someone; "Sonny" Bonner is a child rapist who's gazes toward the girls gives everyone the creeps.

The FBI sends in their best hostage negotiator, Arthur Potter. He's personable and sincerely cares about the captives. Also trying to help rescue the girls is a variety of local law enforcement agencies who are all trying to come up with their own rescue endeavors and don't want to work as a team. In addition is a local politician who is more worried about how he'll look on camera than helping these girls.

When initial contact is made, Handy tells Potter that he'll kill one girl an hour unless his demands are met, and so the story goes...

I learned a lot about hostage negotiations in this book - they never give in to the "taker" and only appease him/her until they can find a way to get the hostages out. But the trick in these negotiations is making the "taker" think they are going to give in and meet the demands.

The character development was, as always, excellent. The depiction of the abandoned slaughterhouse made my skin crawl with the descriptions of bloodstains and stench of decaying flesh (ewww!). The story flowed well, it just wasn't as action packed as The Bone Collector, The Coffin Dancer, or The Devil's Teardrop.

I often found my mind wondering why. (Ok, here are specific details from the book, so if you're planning on reading it, please skip this paragraph!). Why did the bus driver get raped? Why did the girls keep repeating part of the poem that was to be delivered at the recital - was it pertinent? Why did Arthur fixate on the young schoolteacher and begin to have intimate feelings toward someone he'd never met? There were just too many questions without answers for my taste.

Overall the book was a good read, but I'd put others ahead on your Must Read list - save this one for a time when you've run out of "great" reading material and are delving into the "good" reading material.

When you start reading a book and you can't put it down.

When you regret that you are not reading it because you have to do something else.

When no-part of the book is boring (here I have to accept that the last six or seven pages of the penultimate chapter (pages 370-376), after the hostage release, are boring, but you must read them to understand the book's finish).

When you can't guess what'll happen in the next page.

When everything you read could be true.

When you think that the book is already finish with a fairy tale end and you have to read 40 more pages to read an excellent end.

With all these points, the book deserves SIX stars.

And I almost forget that you'll learn very important things about the Deaf people.

This book was great! I have read "The Bone Collector" and "The Coffin Dacer" also, they are equaly as good. The characters in this book are great! I am now searching for another Deaver book. These books are the greatest, he has very astonishing plot twists and ending. I hope to see more Rhyme/Sachs books. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes thrillers with unpredictable plot twists and excellent characters. The only thing that I disliked about this book was the fact that it had to end.