Jeffrey Deaver's THE STEEL KISS

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