I've generally liked Deaver's books, but this was a big let-down.

This was a pretty good Deaver book. Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs make a cameo. He always tries to have a super-twist toward the end. This was maybe a little too twisty during the last quarter of the book but, overall, a good read.

Sehr langatmig zu Beginn und sehr, sehr verliebt in sich selbst. Man muss mir nicht auf jeder fünften Seite unter die Nase reiben, was für eine tolle Kinesik (Körpersprache) Expertin die Protagonistin ist. Der Rest der Charaktere war auch nicht wirklich der Bringer. Zu stereotyp, zu extrem im Sinne von... es wird eine Charaktereigenschaft herausgepickt und auf der wird rumgeritten bis die Horde Pferde tot am Boden liegt. Ich war außerdem sehr verägert über das Tempo der Geschichte. Über fast 400 Seiten wird alles gaaaaanz langsam aufgebaut und dann geht auf einmal alles ganz schnell. Die zahlreichen "Plot twists" können das Ganze dann auch nicht mehr wirklich retten.
Es gab ein paar nette Absätze und Informationen aber im Großen und Ganzen hat mich das jetzt nicht wirklich überzeugt.

As you can see from the synopsis, this is the latest in Jeffrey Deaver’s ‘Kathryn Dance’ series and what could be a fairly straightforward tale of celebrity stalking is differentiated from the standard fare by Deaver’s ratcheting up of the sense of peril and tension that he is so accomplished at. As the story plays out, the reader is wrong-footed at every turn as the body count mounts and the killer remains undetected. This is all well and good and typical of Deaver as he adds the layers of kinesic science through Dance, and by a guest appearance by Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs, the forensic detail, but what really struck me, and what I was most impressed by, was how Deaver’s personal enjoyment and passion for music comes- excuse the pun- singing throughout the book. Whether he is adding detail about specific instruments, the performance arenas with the best acoustics or simply name-checking the luminaries of the Country and Western hall of fame, it makes you feel really involved with the story on a different level. Obviously he uses Dance with her mission to capture the traditional music of the California Fresno region for her down time music web site as an additional foil to indulge this love of music, as she sets about recording the music of Mexican migrants in between thwarting the evil aims of the seemingly psychopathic stalker. At the back of the book are the lyrics (composed by Deaver) to Kayleigh Towne’s greatest hits and by moseying onto his web site these songs have been recorded and are available to download. The lyrics are also very carefully constructed to add clues to how the main story will play out and give hints to the murders before they occur so again lets the reader play detective to some degree.
Again, we have the convoluted and troubled personal relationships of the main characters at the forefront of the book demonstrated by Dance’s increasingly complicated romantic attachments and her initially spiky relationship with the detectives at the local sheriff’s office. We also bear witness to the difficult relationship of Kayleigh with her ex-Country and Western superstar father and how her fame has led to some heartbreaking decisions under his influence. All this is nicely counterbalanced by the wonderfully understated personal and professional relationship of Lincoln and Amelia which is always a joy to behold. Another great read from Deaver with the added bonus of a musical accompaniment which I will be downloading forthwith!

Apologies, I am still recovering from being sick and all I feel right now is ire towards this book. The book totally muffs the ending and that lost all of my goodwill towards it at that point. Question for you ladies? Would you go out to eat with your stalker even if he somehow saved you from being killed? Yeah, yeah, I have to say that this is actually something that occurs during this insane book. And I have to actually use spoilers, because I am too tired to talk around how problematic I found this whole thing from beginning to end.

In Deaver's third Kathryn Dance book "XO", Dance takes a mini-vacation and goes to a concert of a friend of hers, Kayleigh Towne. Kayleigh is in her 20s and is coming up the country music charts. She also has a stalker. Kayleigh who always signs her emails and pictures of her with an "xo" has a man that determines that Kayleigh is just speaking directly to him and she is in love with him. When an accident and then a murder occur around Kayleigh days before her concert, Dance gets involved and hopes she can do what is necessary in order to prevent Kayleigh from being killed.

I have been reading this series and I can count now only in one book where we really truly get to see Dance use her body language skills from beginning to end. She doesn't really use them here, and I have to say that Dance for being so great at her job once again just ignores what's right in front of her. That's three times now she actually got lied to and played by the real bad guy. I just don't know if I have energy for a fourth book or should I cut my losses.

Dance also goes back and forth about what is going on with her relationship with a dude that does not sound attractive at all that we meet from the last book. But she's still thinking about her work colleague and then kisses him, but you know, feels torn.

It has now been three books and in all three books she is still obsessing about her work colleague Mike, whose wife has left him and their kids. At this point, if I were Mike, I would be done with her, but I have a bad feeling that some more mess will occur in the fourth book.

We get appearances by Rhyme and Sachs in this one. It didn't help. I honestly wish Deaver had shown them at Dance's home interacting with her family instead of them popping in to help her with this case.

The truly aggravating part though is that Deaver doesn't seem to know what to do with Kayleigh. We get a ridiculous reveal about her that didn't add up at all. And then even though she has been stalked by a man who shows up in town and won't leave her alone. She somehow stupidly agrees to go to lunch with the guy after the fact because he saved her (she thinks) from being murdered and going up in a fire. I mean I would be all yes thanks dude, but you still stalked me so stay the hell away. But you know, this book goes bygones. Another thing that doesn't work is that Deaver at the end has it that you think maybe though Kayleigh will finally be strong enough to break away from her bullying father who made her lie and took away so much from her, but nope. she's right back there again to deal with him.

The writing was not that tight in this one. We have Dance dealing with locals who don't want her butting in. But of course we get to see how not prepared they are to deal with the man who they identify as Kayleigh's stalker. Everything about the guy pushed my spidey sense. So when we find out in the end he was responsible for some murders and used other people to finally kidnap Kayleigh and "marry" her (ie had plans to rape her and make her love him) I was fresh out of patience for everyone involved.

And the lyrics to the songs was terrible. I was sick of re-reading them over and over again while getting through this book. Deaver tries a whole thing that Kayleigh's stalker or other people are using the lyrics to plan murders, but you don't need to keep reprinting them all through the book.

The ending was a mess and then Deaver just goes and publishes the "songs" for this book and after glancing at them quickly I just put this book aside.

I don't normally read mystery/thrillers, but I really enjoyed this book. Kayleigh Towne is a country singer with a stalker problem. Kathryn Dance is a detective with her own little music obsession, in town on a vacation and to see Kayleigh's concert. Hijinks ensue.

I loved that there were a couple of twists that I didn't see coming, and one that I saw coming from a mile away was confirmed and then turned out to be a big fakeout! Awesome. :) This book may have just hooked me to the Crime/Detective/Mystery/Thriller genre. I will at least go read Deaver's other Kathryn Dance novels (this says it's Kathryn Dance #3, but I didn't feel like I was missing anything). It also had Lincoln Rhyme make an appearance, from another of his series. I may have to read those as well. ;)

A fun read, and I'm glad I picked it up for $2 at a library book sale, because I thought th cover looked interesting. One of the few times that picking up a book for it's cover hasn't bitten me in the butt!

Beyond excellent! Deaver is the master of plot twists, Just when you think it's over, another twist comes along and makes you turn the pages faster. This book, while bringing to mind Taylor Swift as the main character, has a lot of information on music, the music industry, and even includes some songs written by Deaver.

Fans will not be disappointed.

I'm a little worried about Deaver.

He's written some of the most well-crafted plots I've ever read. His novels are typically engaging, and I can always count on him to get me back on track if I'm coming off a subpar story. That said, the last three Deavers I've read confirm my growing concern.

Is he too comfortable? Not feeling challenged anymore?

The last Rhyme I read, The Burning Wire, was the first time I've been a little disappointed in that series. But both Roadside Crosses, and now XO, have glaring problems with clunky writing and stilted dialogue.

It's the gimmicks. I used that word lightly, with no malicious intent. Deaver's a great plotter, a great writer, and I'm afraid he's spending too much time on his side projects involved with the novels. Roadside Crosses had websites you could browse to accompany the book. For XO, he wrote an entire album of lyrics to give us clues toward the killer. What did they add? Nothing. I just want Deaver to write the book. We don't need a multimedia experience--we need a great novel. I've seen him do it time and again. I know he can.

I don't fault Deaver his experiments. He's certainly earned it with his success. But it's hard to see how any fan couldn't see the quality drop in the writing. Stiff, awkward sentences, his seeming crutch of using "It was then" as a precursor to contrive drama, and the overall muddled motivation in his characters--all of it's there in XO.

I'll be back for Rhyme--I like Deaver too much to leave him completely--but I may be finished with Dance. Two poor outings in a row leave me indifferent to her in a starring role. If Rhyme stumbles...

I'm a little worried about Deaver.

I couldn't figure out all the conclusions in this book. Amazing author. Well written though I couldn't understand how all the murders fit in.