A Maiden's Grave

From Amazon:

Eight vulnerable girls and their helpless teachers are forced off a school bus and held hostage. The madman who has them at gunpoint has a simple plan: one hostage an hour will die unless the demands are met. Called to the scene is Arthur Potter, the FBI's best hostage negotiator. He has a plan. But so does one of the hostages-a beautiful teacher who's willing to do anything to save the lives of her students. Now, the clock is ticking as a chilling game of cat and mouse begins.

My Thoughts:

I read this novel ten years ago and just saw that I had never done a review for it. Better late than never:) The Maiden's Grave is filled with enough twists and turns to keep you guessing, taking what could have been just a classic show more negotiation story and flipping it on its head. It takes a frightful, horrific situation and turns it up a notch by having a group of deaf hostages, and the three hostage takers that are unwilling to communicate with them. And then it adds local politics and multiple task forces for good measure, with each group having its own agenda. The characters sometimes take a backseat to the story, but I still felt emotionally invested in what would happen next. This proved to be a good read, along with having a certain amount of unpredictability to keep things interesting. show less

Deaver is a really good writer, and this book starts off as a 5-star. He’s generally crime fiction, but this one is more suspense (or maybe thriller). You know at the beginning what happens and who the bad guys are so the story is what follows. What Deaver is good at is the makings; take the worst possible scenario... and then double it... and then double it again. Something along those lines. But I didn’t really care for it, at least in this case. It’s like Timmy fell into the well, and the cement truck is on its way to fill up that old well, but you know in advance that Lassie is going to save the day. You don’t know how, but the when is simply how many minutes until the show is over or how many pages until the end of the show more book.

So a lot of the book dragged, same themes, same dialogs. I do give him credit for an interesting narrative; I learned a lot about the Deaf and being deaf that I didn’t know before and this book made me think about that culture and those who cannot hear in a new context. Overall though, that wasn’t enough to make me like this book anymore or become overly engaged with the story or the people in the story.

Another complaint I have with Deaver is that all his super genius crime stoppers tend to fall flat at some point (universally at the worst possible point). Yeah, yeah, they can’t know everything all the time, but they always seem to miss the most obvious factors. You know how like in every respectable slasher movie you get to that point... don’t take a shower right now... or don’t go skinny-dipping right now... it was like that. You could well in advance pretty much figure what was going to happen.

But like any good book, the ending is strong so I kicked it up another half star to slightly better than average. show less

A MAIDEN'S GRAVE is what every trashy thriller should be. It's the kind of book that you'll want to read undisturbed at one sitting, while telling the boss, spouse, kids, pets, or whatever, "Buzz off!"
Jeffrey Deaver is the master of suspenseful page turners, and this book delivers. Like Lincoln Rhymes, the lead character in this book is not a lovable guy. Art Potter is a hostage negotiator whose only goal is to get the hostage takers to surrender. When he is called in on a case where 8 deaf children and their teachers have been abducted, the choices he makes often seem cold blooded. Yet we are rooting for Potter to succeed in ending the stand-off.
Writing a book where most of the characters are deaf could not have been easy, but Deaver show more seems to be able to get into the psyche of a deaf group of young girls, and write great "speaking" parts them. We are very in tune with the girls, and most especially the teacher, Melanie, whose character undergoes a metamorphosis during the captivity.
Deaver is the master of the "I didn't see that one coming", and he does that again here. Just when you think everything is over and done, he shoots you right back into the action.
My only complaint with this book was the ending, where certain things seemed out of character. It seemed a little pat.
Regardless of that, the book was well worth the roller coaster ride. show less

Another Deaver classic. Interesting idea writing about a number of deaf hostages, cleverly done with some good misdirection and twists as expected from Deaver's novels.

I started out thinking that I was going to hate this book. I was wrong, I couldn't put it down. Very unbelievable in the end, but that is why I read books, to take me away from reality.

Tense, fraught and mostly believable, Deaver stays one step ahead until the film style shock ending.

It doesn't have Lincoln Rhymes; but Jeffrey Deaver is the master of suspenseful page turners, and this book delivers. Great read, kept me up way too late at night!