Customer Reviews

Roadside Crosses: A Kathryn Dance Novel (Kathryn Dance Novels)

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(35)
3 star:		(20)
2 star:		(19)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I am a big Deaver fan but Roadside Crosses was a disappointment. The main character, Kathryn Dance, specializes in kinesics--reading body language. Her character was originally introduced in a Lincoln Rhyme novel. As a secondary character she was fine...as the primary...I'm not so sure the whole kinesics thing works. In addition, the plot was not woven together well. Generally, if you are paying attention, there are clues throughout the book as to "who done it." In Roadside Crosses, you'll never figure out "who done it"...not because the plot is craftily written but because the breadcrumbs were never dropped for the reader to follow. My recommendation...save your money.

ROADSIDE CROSSES is Jeffrey Deaver's follow-up to THE SLEEPING DOLL, a novel featuring CBI agent and body language expert Kathryn Dance. THE SLEEPING DOLL was a really good book despite the fact that the final twist was silly. The sequel fails to match in anyway the expectations set for it by the first book.

ROADSIDE CROSSES has a fascinating premise. A killer is leaving crosses on the side of the road in memorial to people that have died. Except, the crosses are for people who haven't been killed yet. I was disappointed that the crosses have really nothing to do with the novel except in a passing fashion. A few weeks ago, Travis Brigham was the driver of a car that had a wreck and killed two passengers. Mourners left roadside crosses, and a blogger named James Chilton wrote a blog about it. On that blog, classmates began attacking Brigham. This is what the novel is all about. Chilton and his blog and online threats. As more people keep dying, Dance, married partner Michael O'Neil and friends try to find out what is motivating Travis and where he will strike next.

The good: Despite my complaints about the story, Deaver has crafted some characters that are intersesting. That is half the battle and means I'll read the promised third book in the series.

The not so good: Deaver tried to do a lot of things with this novel and failed with most of them. First, he set up a great premise about roadside crosses being left at grave sites, then abandoned it as a feature of the story. Second, he seemed to want to tackle the issue of how vulnerable we are considering how much we put about ourselves online, but never seemed to find focus. He brings up role playing games, message boards, blogs and personal networking, but none of it really seems realistic (especially the blogs), even though the novel is current. Third, there is an absurd sublot involving Dance's mom related to THE SLEEPING DOLL that does nothing to advance the plot, but does play a part in the character arc.

In thrillers of this type, the author can choose to write from the villain's point of view, which he did so effectively in THE SLEEPING DOLL. In ROADSIDE CROSSES, Deaver never writes from the killer's point of view, so most of the crimes committed didn't make since. As the novel takes its typical twists and turns, some of it begins to make more sense, but its a case of too little too late. I think Deaver tried to do too much with this novel, and created a novel that had some good parts, but none of them really connected to make a good whole.

I look forward to every book by Jeffrey Deaver but this one I would rate a 3-star and barely that. Too much techno crap and too weak a story. It could have been a great read except for all the extraneous stuff about "gaming" and blogs. I really don't see how this tecno babble lent anything to the plot except in a limited way. It could have been inserted with a limited narrative and to complement the story line. It didn't do that...in my opinion it overwhelmed the story line. The main characters even seemed bored.

As a suspense novel, "Roadside Crosses" works pretty well. But the quality of the research is subpar, and indeed causes me to question my enjoyment of the previous Deaver books I've read. In addition to several factual errors, there are a number of story details that just don't ring true at all, even if they are not technically errors. It's ironic that one of the book's themes is the misrepresentation or "translation failure" of facts on the internet, when the book itself is just as guilty. Here is a short list:

1. "DimensionQuest", the highly popular MMO played by two of the characters, is described as having "excessive blood". In a fight scene, a character "beheads" another. Yet the game is also described as T-rated (for teens). The ESRB does not permit games with graphic violence or beheadings the T-rating.
2. In the same game, a player is described as having "slaughtered an entire family". Not even M-rated (mature) games depict the killing of children. For this reason, children are simply absent from games that permit the player to kill indiscriminately.
3. Not an error, but one of those bad details: DQ is described as being very hardcore, with players suffering permanent consequences for their actions (such as loss of items, large amounts of experience, etc), and with real-life survival skills being necessary to survive in the game. No mainstream MMO would be designed that way. You cannot crack 10 million subscribers (as DQ has in the book) without catering to the casual audience, and that audience won't stand for such unforgiving gameplay.
4. The phrase "synth world" is used to refer to the online world, but virtually no one uses that phrase. The more accurate phrases would be "netspace" and "meatspace".
5. Deaver consistently confuses abbreviations used in texting with "leetspeak", and characters often use both. Yet in the real world, leetspeak is mostly used by gamers. People don't say "I owned that thread" in blog comments; "owned" is a gamer term. But Deaver's non-gamer characters regularly use leetspeak.
6. It's simply implausible that a blog focusing on local issues like the Chilton Report would attract a national audience, to say nothing of a global one.

Deaver mines fertile ground for this thriller, the internet, where an astute and committed blogger creates a lively venue for his audience in Monterey County, California, to vent their concerns on politics, local interests and, most recently, a terrible accident that takes the life of two teenaged girls. The driver of the car, sixteen-year-old Travis Bingham, is the focus of a raging flame war, especially when the surviving girl is attacked by someone in a hoodie, the act memorialized by a roadside cross strewn with red roses. These crosses become harbingers of death, each new attack marked by another cross with the date of each new tragedy. Bloggers' fingers are flying on their keyboards, all eyes on Travis, an online gamer that has disappeared into the murky space between reality and cyber role playing, his avatar reappearing occasionally before vanishing again. Meanwhile, the bodies and crosses proliferate.

Kinesics expert Kathryn Dance of the California Bureau of Investigation has the unenviable task of locating this ubiquitous young villain before he strikes again, her efforts thwarted by Travis's remarkable ability to hide from authorities while the crimes escalate, as do the iconic roadside crosses. Since it all began on The Chilton Report, Dance acquaints herself with the man behind the blog and the communication methods of the internet savvy, where anonymity reigns and panic grows with each new body and cross. Lots of information here for the uninitiated, from cyber-bullying to tracking blogger ID's to the nebulous realm of gaming aficionados and their avatars. Unfortunately, the implied threats of the blog translate into murder in the physical world Dance inhabits. Feints and false clues abound, a variety of characters as agendas, cyber world an attractive alternative to the murder, greed and betrayal law enforcement faces in Monterey County.

From flame wars on Chilton's blog to the gruesome crime scenes, Dance hops nimbly from one reality to another in pursuit of Travis, who has attained mythological proportions along the way. Deaver's educational forays into the intricacies of the internet, blogs, an entire generation obsessed with gaming, and the depersonalization of society is far more fascinating than the dead bodies left in the wake of the roadside crosses, but there are plenty of other real-time problems, a suspected mercy killing, a controversial desalinization plant, local politics and a potential terrorist threat to keep Dance on her toes while Travis lurks in his cyber hideout. There's lots of activity in this unruly thriller, perhaps too ambitious, sometimes compelling and often confusing as villains and cops collide. Luan Gaines/2009.

I've read a great deal of Jeffrey Deaver, but his last few books have been complete disappointments and utter bores. There are huge chunks of clunky exposition here and minimal characterization. None of the characters here sound authentic in the slightest and his attempts to sound hip and with it in terms of how he thinks teenagers write on the Internet are lame. I skimmed most of this book and was too bored to even consider flipping to the end because Deaver only succeeded in one thing: making me so apathetic I didn't CARE whodunit.

Don't waste your money on this one. I did and I'm pissed. I'm using the library for his stuff from now on . . .

This book is not just a mystery, it is a "manual" for those of us who are trying to communicate to today's generation.

Web Log becomes Blog
Forums and blogs become flame wars and rumor mills
Leetspeak - usg abbrev and subbing 3 for e and 4 for a
But mostly understanding the whole idea of cybergaming and cyber culture

As this mystery explores the social relationships that have come into being through today's world of cyberspace and cybermedia, a new character is brought into Kathryn Dance's world - Jonathan Boling, a professor and professional in the area of computers and computer worlds.

There are actually four concurrent mysteries going on - the primary one is the "case of the roadside crosses," which alone would have made a good mystery. However, there is also the arrest of Kathryn's mom for murder, a "missing container" case, and a "John Doe" case which all play in the background.

The situation becomes involved (and sticky at times), and is an enjoyable read with real-life characters. Like many Deaver novels, it is filled with twists and turns and the only thing you can be sure of is that what you are sure of probably isn't true.

I only gave it four stars because I found that it dragged in a couple of spots and I "got tired of it." But invariably, I picked it back up and in a few pages the story drew me back in.

A gr8 r33d.