Review: A Maiden's Grave

8 young Deaf girls and their two teachers are taken hostage as they stop on a lonely Kansas road to help a vehicle which appears in trouble. Convicted killer Lou Handy, and two equally evil conspirators, takes them to a nearby abandoned slaughterhouse, which will serve as the eerier setting for many of the pivotal events to follow over the next 24 hours. It is here, the ancient monument to decades of slaughtered animals where Lou Handy will make his demands…and will kill one innocent girl an hour if they are not met.

Enter Arthur Potter, a strong, vividly moralistic and human character. His job is to negotiate with the kidnappers, to build up a rapport, to persuade them to give themselves up, and then betray them. At almost any cost, even if that cost is a young life. While Potter tries doggedly to do his job, capture the criminals and save the hostages , reporters swarm around him, politicians complicate things further, and Troopers jaded at his authority and methods, try to take things into their own hands…

This may be one of Deaver’s earliest "proper" thrillers, but to this day it remains my very favourite. It boasts strikingly realistic procedural detail, and a plot which, while it could have been a simple hostage thriller, instead turns into something much, much greater. The conversations between Potter and Handy are full of tension and entirely gripping. Potter’s relationship with both him and the young teacher, Melanie, are constructed very well, drawn subtly and, in the case of the latter, surprisingly movingly. He portrays the Deaf entirely competently, completely unpatronizingly, and with great empathy. Their comradeship and communication with one another, and the acts caused to them by their vicious kidnappers, provide some of the most emotional and moving moments in suspense fiction.

I have never seen so affected by the plight of a group of characters as I was when reading this book. This is almost certainly the best hostage novel that the suspense genre has ever seen. It has memorably, realistically drawn characters, and is full of tension from start to finish. The ending packs a great punch with a final, shocking, believable (some of his aren’t always…) twist. Jeffery Deaver is, without shadow of a doubt, my favourite male crime writer, and if you read this book, the reason for that will be clear.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Fiona Walker

Book Review: A Maiden's Grave