REVIEW OF
THE STEEL KISS
By Jeffrey Deaver
Jeffrey Deaver is my most admired
author. His stories are immediately captivating, and he writes suspense that is
loaded with detail, managing to do it in such an interesting way that the
reader enjoys every word, a truly unique trait.
The Steel Kiss is
right up there with Deaver’s best, pulling the reader into the plot with a
horrific and never-before-heard-of death: an escalator trap door opens at the
top of the stairs, pulling a man on the stairs into the mechanism below. Amelia
Sachs, who happens to be in the shopping mall at the time following a suspect, witnesses
the accident. She drops what she’s doing and crawls into the innards of the
escalator in an attempt to save him.
Lincoln Rhyme is
as interesting as ever, even working independently of the police. He gets involved
in the escalator death when he forms an alliance with an attorney attempting to help
out the man’s widow by recouping a death benefit for her from whoever is
responsible for the accident that killed her husband.
The plot moves on
from there at a rapid and detailed pace, introducing a new character, Juliette Archer, in a way
that makes her immediately interesting and enjoyable to the reader.
The author concludes with a superb
and memorable ending.
Kudos to Deaver on this super
suspense read.
Dear Readers,
As I write this, I’m working on the
finishing stages of my own suspense novel, Promise of Malice, the third in my
Detective Kendall Halsrud series. I feel so inferior as I absorb Deaver’s words
that I nearly want to stop writing!
But then I remember how many different
writing styles I read and enjoy, reminding me that there is room for everyone’s
writing style, even mine. Deaver has a style totally
different from James Patterson, for example, and yet both have wide,
appreciative audiences, leaving plenty of room in between for the rest of us
striving authors.
Till next time, take care and have
a wonderful May,
Marla
