The Body of David Hayes [Hardcover]

Daphne and John have settled into a live in relationship. This came about in the previous novel, which featured Matthews. Consequently, these two figures, while always prominent in past novels, are really no more than side characters in 'The Body of David Hayes.' John gets a fair amount of attention, but Matthews only really appears in about a dozen pages.

The attention of this novel is squarely on Lou Boldt and his wife Liz. The novel reaches back into the earlier installments of the series, and a past lover of Liz's is parolled after serving several years on his sentence for embezelling millions from the bank Liz worked out. Suddenly, Liz finds her entire world, including her career and marriage, in peril as the affair is threatened to be exposed.

While the Boldt's focus on this disruption on their lives, Lou sets out to piece together what exactly is happening. An old friend appears to have gone maverick in an attempt to close the old embezzlement case. The prosecuting attorney suddenly doesn't look so good either. David Hayes is on the loose, and what he is up to is an enigma. To top it all off, the Russian mafia enters the scene. Suddenly, who is an ally and who is an enemy is not quite so clear. Crime scenes are no longer clear, and cast suspicion on many characters.

'The Body of David Hayes' continues Pearson's string of well written novels. His writing, which was always strong, has grown and he is no longer just adept at writing a suspenseful thriller, but has captured the ability to add color to everyday scenes. The turmoil between Lou and Liz is thick and suffocating.

The only down point is that while Pearson kept the readers in suspense as to who exactly the 'bad guy' is, it almost becomes to confusing. Frequently, Liz or Lou would make some sort of discovery which would appear to be profound, but didn't seem to enlighten the reader much. This wouldn't be a problem if the story would then evolve from that point as if the reader had kept up. This doesn't happen a great deal, but enough to be distracting at points.

All in all, its a good novel. Once I started, I couldn't put it down. I recommend it to any fan of Pearson's work or the Boldt series, and any fan of police or crime fiction in general. Some knowledge of previous novels in the series would help, but it is not essential to understanding this novel. Pearson does a good job of summing up the back story so that the new reader is informed without it becoming cumbersome.

I'm not saying the book is bad. I'm just saying that he's kind of shifted emphasis off Boldt and Daphne and onto Boldt and Liz. That means we get a lot more about the Boldts home life, and less about the police work. In a series about a homicide cop, this book ran against the grain, becoming a novel about bank fraud and the marital relationship between a man and his wife. I applaud the character depth that Ridley went into, but I'd definitely like to get back on the main stream of things and reading about Boldt, Matthews and LaMoia again. This book seemed almost a spinoff from the original series.

I also felt that the direction the story took seemed to lead Boldt to do things that were out of character for him. I'm not gonna give away any spoilers, but well go read it and you'll see what I mean.

Overall, as it always is with any Pearson novel, the writing was tight and suspense masterful. If you're an existing Pearson fan, you should read this. If you're not, don't start with this book because it's not an adequate representation of the power of his work. Pick up one of his earlier novels-- like "No Witnesses" or "The Pied Piper", then come back and read this one later.