The Never Game

 

The Never Game – by Jeffery Deaver

I’ve written about 500 reviews and no author has gotten more of my reflections than Jeffrey Deaver. I think it’s because right around the time I started to write reviews was the same time I discovered this wonderful author.  I mention this because, for me anyway, my reviews of Deaver’s work seem to be awfully redundant and if, by chance, you’ve come across my other reflections of this author’s work, you might be tempted to slag me off as unimaginative and uncreative.  There’s only so many times I can say the same things about an author and his work.

Deaver is famous for his tales around the character of Lincoln Rhyme, but at some point I got too tired of reading about the perpetually grouchy quadriplegic. He’s also written a few novels around Kathryn Dance, but her character always seemed a tad unbelievable and not nearly as interesting. For me, her books were never really as interesting as the Rhyme escapades.  Well, for this novel, we meet a new protagonist – Colter Shaw. 

Who is this Shaw guy?  Well, Deaver doesn’t reveal too much in this novel. This is smart.  Let’s learn more about him as the novels go on (I believe there have been four as I pen this review in 2022).  Shaw is “kind of” a private investigator.  He works for people who post  rewards for missing relatives etc.  He’s pretty smart, I would guess 30-something, and can definitely hold his own in a fight; with or without weapons.  He rarely smiles and is a bit aloof.  How come?  Well, Shaw had a rather different childhood.  Apparently his parents were big on isolating the family out in the great outdoors and focused on teaching the kids how to “survive”.

It seems a bit of a harsh childhood, but we never get the impression that Shaw and his siblings were hurt or abused or anything. They simply didn’t have much of what many would call a normal childhood.  No video games, no Saturday morning cartoons, no sugary snacks, and no cool toys that seem to be in fashion at the time.  This causes the character to be a tad stoic for the majority of the story and he doesn’t always immediately relate to people who he meets along the way.

If I were to be perfectly honest, I actually enjoyed reading more about Colter Shaw and his predicaments than the actual story that is presented here.  The story revolves around a killer who is a tad too obsessed with a particular video game and wants to copy a popular game in how it deals with the losers of the game.  Remember, because of Shaw’s background, he really doesn’t know much at all about video games. (The way he gets “introduced” to the phenomena in this story seemed a bit forced and unrealistic.)  Deaver has used the topic of video games in more than one of his previous novels, so the subject matter seemed a bit “been there done that”. The writing, though, is superb.   The chapters were rather brief, so the book can be read rather quickly. Deaver also seems to always end each chapter with a bit of “cliffhanger”.

In a sense, this was a perfect Jeffery Deaver book for me to pick up.  It’s been several months since my last Deaver novel since I just wasn’t sure I could handle more Lincoln Rhyme and/or Kathryn Dance.  I’ve often wished Deaver wrote more “standalone” books.  Since this book was a “first” of a new character, it definitely felt more like a standalone.  I enjoyed this new guy Colter Shaw.  I hope I can say the same after I’ve read a few more and he doesn’t wear out his welcome.