The Body of David Hayes (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "LOU BOLDT PICKED UP BITS and pieces of the assault over an uncooperative cell phone..." (more)
Key Phrases: aluminum briefcase, ear bud, money drop, Danny Foreman, David Hayes, Special Ops (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Lt. Lou Boldt is still top cop in the ninth installment of Pearson's Seattle Police Department series. (Undercurrents; No Witnesses; etc.). This time the case involves Boldt's wife, Liz, who's weathered many a storm throughout her marriage: chemotherapy, a separation, the kidnapping of their daughter and now the revelation of her affair with David Hayes, a computer whiz at the bank where she's an executive. Hayes embezzled $17 million and went to jail, but now he's free and the never-recovered money has both cops and robbers interested in his whereabouts. Liz had nothing to do with the theft, but Russian mobster Gen. Yasmani Svengrad (known as the Sturgeon General because he's the head of a caviar importing company) thinks the money belongs to him, and she's the key to getting it back. It's all extremely complicated, but with the help of Sgt. John LaMoia and Boldt's former lover police, psychologist Daphne Matthews, who is now living with LaMoia, Boldt hopes not only to solve the case but to protect his wife's reputation and keep his marriage from foundering. The difficulty is that Boldt's personal problems, which mount to near soap opera levels, tend to distract from the more interesting crime elements. Pearson's uneven writing too often veers into the mawkish when attempting to reveal Boldt's inner feelings ("She touched him once lightly on the arm as he opened the door. The tenderness of that gesture cut him to his core and he felt emotions ripple through him"). Pearson wisely eschews the sentimentalism as he builds to a climactic finale in which Boldt cleverly manipulates friend and foe alike to save Liz and serve justice.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Pearson found a perfect groove early on for his much-acclaimed Lou Boldt-Daphne Matthews series, and it has been running flawlessly through eight installments. He changes focus this time, moving forensic psychologist Matthews to the background and elevating the wife of Seattle police Lieutenant Boldt to center stage. What results is a novel that adds depth and resonance to the ongoing series but that, as a stand-alone thriller, proves slightly less galvanizing than usual, which is not to say that there isn't plenty of pulse-pounding suspense and lovingly laid-out procedural detail. The plot revolves around the reappearance of David Hayes, with whom Liz Boldt had an affair and who embezzled millions from the bank where she is a high-ranking officer. Hayes is out of prison and needs Liz to access the bank's mainframe if he is to recover the embezzled millions, now dangling in cyberspace, and avoid the wrath of the Russian mob. In order to find the money and keep Liz out of harm's way, Boldt must balance the contradictory roles of jealous husband and objective investigator. Give Pearson credit for turning away, albeit temporarily, from the edgy relationship between Boldt and Matthews and tackling instead a much trickier topic: the sinews that hold together a long-term marriage. No easy task for any writer, especially one who must simultaneously face the plot-driven demands of the high-octane thriller. Mission accomplished, even if the plot burns a slightly lower-grade fuel this time. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion; 1 edition (April 6, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786867256
• ISBN-13: 978-0786867257
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #454,862 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #31 in

  Books > Mystery & Thrillers > Authors, A-Z > ( P ) > Pearson, Ridley

• This is item 9 in The Boldt/Matthews Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Boldt & Co. continue to evolve, June 17, 2004

By	DJK ver 2.0 "Reader and Movie Buff" (Richardson, TX) - See all my reviews

'The Body of David Hayes' is the latest installment in the drama that centers around Lieutenant Lou Boldt, family, and friends. Ridley Pearson's series has, in the past, focused on Lou Boldt, psychologist Daphne Matthews, and detective, now sargeant, John Lamoia as they used high tech forensic science, psychology, and a bit of good old fashioned detective work to track down kidnappers, killers, and rapers. Along the way, Pearson has gone into great depth about the home lives concerning the characters.

Daphne and John have settled into a live in relationship. This came about in the previous novel, which featured Matthews. Consequently, these two figures, while always prominent in past novels, are really no more than side characters in 'The Body of David Hayes.' John gets a fair amount of attention, but Matthews only really appears in about a dozen pages.

The attention of this novel is squarely on Lou Boldt and his wife Liz. The novel reaches back into the earlier installments of the series, and a past lover of Liz's is parolled after serving several years on his sentence for embezelling millions from the bank Liz worked out. Suddenly, Liz finds her entire world, including her career and marriage, in peril as the affair is threatened to be exposed.

While the Boldt's focus on this disruption on their lives, Lou sets out to piece together what exactly is happening. An old friend appears to have gone maverick in an attempt to close the old embezzlement case. The prosecuting attorney suddenly doesn't look so good either. David Hayes is on the loose, and what he is up to is an enigma. To top it all off, the Russian mafia enters the scene. Suddenly, who is an ally and who is an enemy is not quite so clear. Crime scenes are no longer clear, and cast suspicion on many characters.

'The Body of David Hayes' continues Pearson's string of well written novels. His writing, which was always strong, has grown and he is no longer just adept at writing a suspenseful thriller, but has captured the ability to add color to everyday scenes. The turmoil between Lou and Liz is thick and suffocating.

The only down point is that while Pearson kept the readers in suspense as to who exactly the 'bad guy' is, it almost becomes to confusing. Frequently, Liz or Lou would make some sort of discovery which would appear to be profound, but didn't seem to enlighten the reader much. This wouldn't be a problem if the story would then evolve from that point as if the reader had kept up. This doesn't happen a great deal, but enough to be distracting at points.

All in all, its a good novel. Once I started, I couldn't put it down. I recommend it to any fan of Pearson's work or the Boldt series, and any fan of police or crime fiction in general. Some knowledge of previous novels in the series would help, but it is not essential to understanding this novel. Pearson does a good job of summing up the back story so that the new reader is informed without it becoming cumbersome.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE BODY OF DAVID HAYES by Ridley Pearson - Review, April 6, 2004

By	LCrawford "[e-mail]" (Sacramento, CA) - See all my reviews

Ridley Pearson does a masterful job of leading us into the lives of Liz and Lou Boldt as the bomb of David Hayes release, and Liz's long-ago infidelity, drops on their heads. Only if they work together can they hope to escape the fall out. From personal to professional crisis, both Boldts are stretched to their physical and emotional limits. This is nail-biting tension at it's best. Pearson's intricate plotting of smart moves and countermoves will keep you up all night. You don't want to miss this one!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Contrivance, April 24, 2004

By	John Bowes (Oxford, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Pearson likes to take technology or science and fashion a plot around cutting edge discoveries. This time the science is old,and the ultimate solution is unexplained and leaves the reader unsatisfied. The relationship between Boldt and his wife, with all they have been through, just doesn't feel right in this one. He's done better.