Slaughterhouse ten! (A Maiden's Grave - Jeffery Deaver)

Name: mohan

Hello doyoo user, You have to be logged in to use these functions... Login or register Close window

Send message to member

Product:	A Maiden's Grave - Jeffery Deaver
Date:	24/08/00 (39 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Gripping thriller with good dialogue.

Disadvantages: too cinematic at times

In a disused slaughterhouse at Crow Ridge, eight deaf girls and their teachers are held hostage by the ice-cold Killer Lou Handy. All they did was stop their schoolbus to help at a car crash on an isolated road. Now the game is on; Lou Handy has promised to kill one innocent child every hour, on the hour until they meet his demands... The Police, the FBI, media, politicians and the usual vultures swarm around- but bringing the hostages out alive doesn't seem to be everyone's priority.

Jeffery Deaver sets the scene and a terrifying pace, never relinquishing his hold of the action.
This is the novel that catapulted him into the big league and best-seller lists. ( he went stratospheric with his Lincoln Rhyme thrillers - 'The Bone Collector', 'Coffin Dancer' and the latest, 'The Empty Chair').

By using children, the novel is at the most manipulative, but one can't blame Deaver in using every ploy to refresh a tired hostage milieu ( that has been done to death by Hollywood). He delivers in spades. By skilfully intermingling the media hoopla and the heartless manipulativeness of the outside world with the dark and dismal
horror inside the slaughterhouse, Deaver introduces some acrid social commentary that lifts this gripping thriller a couple of notches.

His characters are well drawn, even though there are many. Deaver also displays well researched police procedures but they never hamper the action. To use a cliched term, this book is genuinely unputdownable. A must for any thriller fan.

Summary: