Roadside Crosses: A Kathryn Dance Novel (Kathryn Dance Novels) [Paperback]

Jeffery Deaver (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 23, 2010 | Series: Kathryn Dance Novels

"Astonishing" (New York Times Book Review) suspense master Jeffery Deaver brings back investigative agent Kathryn Dance (The Sleeping Doll) in a timely and chilling bestseller.

Roadside crosses are appearing along the highways of the Monterey Peninsula, not as memorials to past accidents but as markers for fatalities yet to come . . . and someone, armed with information gleaned from careless and all-too-personal blog postings, intends to carry out those killings. Kathryn Dance and her C.B.I. team know when the attacks will take place, but who will be the victims? Her body language expertise leads her to a recent fatal car crash, and to the driver, Travis Brigham, a gaming-obsessed teen who’s become the target of vicious cyberbullies. And when Travis disappears, Kathryn must lead a furious manhunt in the elusive world of bloggers and social networking, where nothing is as it seems. . . .

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Tony Award–winning actress Michele Pawk nicely captures the inner monologues of Deaver's protagonist Kathryn Dance, the California Bureau of Investigation's leading kinesics expert. Dance's remarkable sixth sense concerning the truthfulness of suspects and witnesses becomes a double-edged sword in her social interactions with co-workers and family members, and Pawk's portrayal of the widowed detective's angst on the fledgling romantic front rings especially true. Pawk's rendering of the dialogue proves to be her weak point: the voices of older teen boys, especially Travis Brigham, the young man at the center of the story, continually quiver into higher octaves more suitable to preadolescent males. While the listener never loses touch with the essence of Dance, others in her path come to life with varying degrees of success. A Simon & Schuster hardcover (Reviews, Apr. 13). (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

From Booklist

Deaver is bound to slip up sometime. But not this time. This novel, which follows on the heels of Sleeping Doll (2007), again stars California Bureau of Investigation agent Kathryn Dance and, like its predecessor, is tightly constructed with a suspenseful story and plenty of plot twists. Deaver, perhaps more than any other crime writer, is able to fool even the most experienced readers with his right-angle turns, and this story of a serial killer who uses social networks to find his prey is full of them. Deaver’s investigators are very good at their jobs, and in order to fool them (and us), he must be exceedingly clever, as well as just a little bit deceitful (having characters say things that turn out not to be true, for example, even though they believed the things when they said them). So far Deaver has avoided accidentally telegraphing a plot twist in advance, but someday, surely, he’ll out-clever himself. Or maybe he won’t. This is an excellent entry in what promises to be a series as popular as the author’s Lincoln Rhyme novels. --David Pitt --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: Pocket Books; 1 Reprint edition (February 23, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416550003
• ISBN-13: 978-1416550006
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 4.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (117 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #360,731 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

51 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's another breathless, slam bang thriller from Deaver, June 11, 2009

By 

Jeri Nevermind "loves to read" (Idaho) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Roadside Crosses: A Kathryn Dance Novel (Kathryn Dance Novels) (Hardcover)

Deaver specializes in thrillers, and in "Roadside Crosses" he manages enough twists and turns to keep you compulsively turning the pages. Here's the quick summation: go out an buy this book!

Kathryn Dance, whom Deaver introduced a few novels ago, is a specialist in reading people. The momentary smile or constant blinking of a suspect--something those without her training would never notice--gives her real insight into whether a suspect is lying or not.

This time, she is up against an internet genius.

Someone, it seems, is putting up roadside crosses, not, as is usual, as a memorial to someone who died in an auto crash. But as a way to announce a coming death. But why? And who?

The computer genius Dance is pitted against is as clever as it gets. Don't expect you can guess where Deaver is leading you; he's a terrific writer, and this is one of his best books yet.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating look into technology and teens, with a healthy dose of suspense added!, June 11, 2009

By 

Novel Bookworm "Kelly" (Santa Clarita, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Roadside Crosses: A Kathryn Dance Novel (Kathryn Dance Novels) (Hardcover)

Deaver does an excellent job in this second in the Kathryn Dance series. Even though the book references the incidents of the previous novel, the reader can follow along quite well. Dance's character is further fleshed out, allowing us to see a bit more of what "makes her tick". The book is an interesting foray into the world of blogging and especially into the world of cyber bullying. It was frighteningly true to life to see how rumors, innuendo and outright lies can travel the globe in the speed of a mouse click and the terrible ramifications for those targeted.

31 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Maybe a Deaver fan no more, June 22, 2009

By 

G. Allred - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Roadside Crosses: A Kathryn Dance Novel (Kathryn Dance Novels) (Hardcover)

I've been a fan of Jeffery Deaver since reading 'Praying for Sleep' and have since bought most of the books that followed, however, Roadside Crosses left me bored and uninterested. It seemed he was trying to convince the reader that he's a techie. Way too much teaching about the cyberworld and the whole book left me cold. Probably, Mr. Deaver is a bit burned out after having written such great books in the past, but he loses me as an avid fan. Before I'd buy another of his books, I will want some other readers input.