Twisted: The Collected Stories of Jeffery Deaver

This guy's short story writing blew me away. I'm not one to reach for short stories, just have always preferred novels, but this guy can pack serious depth in a few pages. He's so clever. And creepy!! He also writes the Lincoln Rimes series, which I enjoy, but when I write short stories, I try and channel Jeffery Deaver.

I greatly enjoyed this collection of short stories featuring twisted people in stories with excellent plot twists. Everytime I thought I knew what was going to happen, I was wrong. This was my first time reading anything by this author, although I had heard of him before. Some of the highlights for me were:

*A beautiful woman goes to extreme lengths to rid herself of a stalker.* A former nerd, now an adult, gets revenge on his former tormentors. *A father's fishing trip turns deadly and the absolute best story features detective Lincoln Rhyme in a Christmas themed disappearance.

I am looking forward to reading the Bone Collector and I will be reading the rest of the Lincoln Rhyme series in the near future.

Buonissima raccolta di racconti. Nulla da dire, se non che Deaver a mio parere rende meglio in imprese un po' più lunghe. Questo perché, nonostante ci siano storie mozzafiato (come al solito quello con Lincoln e Amelia è superiore, sarà che ci sono affezionata), la brevità rende un poco meno comprensibili i colpi di scena e le sorprese. È comunque opera del maestro Deaver.

Sixteen short stories of variable quality by Jeffery Deaver. These include a Lincoln Rhyme novella which is I suppose of most interest to most people. Not that is is a really terribly good one. Of the other fifteen,I liked 'For Services Rendered' and 'Together' best. When Deaver tried to write an historical story "All The World's A Stage' he failed miserably. By the time we came to the last story,which was not at all bad,it was easy to guess the solution as by that time one could see just how the writer's mind was working.

Deaver, in his novels, is a master of the manipulation of the reader and of the twists that lead the reader all over the narrative. However, unlike his books, his short stories are not predictable in who will win when we have good versus evil. His short stories are push more to the edge, yet still hold within the mystery genre. Each story has an originality and engrossing subject and fans of his novels should appreciate his sense of shocking and entertaining his audience within this collection of shorts. Twisted is an exciting read and any one of its stories is great for an evening read with a good wine and an eye to watch your back.

The least likely suspect, the unreliable narrator, the mind-bendingly unexpected plot twist. Go ahead. Think you know where the story's going. You'll be wrong every time. Contains some language.

These stories reminded me of those published in the old Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. Each story was worth reading, but with about three notable exceptions, they were nothing special.