Customer Reviews

The Body of David Hayes

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

'The Body of David Hayes' is the latest installment in the drama that centers around Lieutenant Lou Boldt, family, and friends. Ridley Pearson's series has, in the past, focused on Lou Boldt, psychologist Daphne Matthews, and detective, now sargeant, John Lamoia as they used high tech forensic science, psychology, and a bit of good old fashioned detective work to track down kidnappers, killers, and rapers. Along the way, Pearson has gone into great depth about the home lives concerning the characters.

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've been a Ridley Pearson fan for a long time. But while I enjoyed this book and devoured it in a day and a half, I agree with some of the other reviewers when they say that this is not his best effort.

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.

Ridley Pearson is a real hit or miss author and this one is a miss. This resembles a plot for a soap opera and not a thriller.
The only thrill is when it finally ends and I confess I skimmed
the last 20 or so pages because I just didn't care how Liz got
out of her jam. Boldt is supposed to be madly scrambling to save
his marriage, but he still finds time to be irritated that
Daphne has moved on with his friend, LaMoia. The whole Lou/Liz
bit has run its course, and LaMoia was infinitely more interesting before finding domestic bliss. We need a little action in the next book, Ridley!

THE BODY OF DAVID HAYES is the ninth of Ridley Pearson's novels featuring Seattle Police Detectives Lou Boldt and Daphne Matthews. Pearson has infused these books with a number of interesting elements and has reached the point where he can pick and choose among them so that each new offering in the series is familiar yet never predictable. The series is set in Seattle, one of the more fascinating cities in the United States, so that Pearson can build his story around a point of interest (as he did so brilliantly in THE ART OF DECEPTION, for example). He can feature either Boldt or Matthews as the focal point of the story, or alternate between the two. Given the longevity of the series, Pearson can also reach into the past and use it as a propellant for a story set in the present.

THE BODY OF DAVID HAYES is primarily a Boldt book. Actually, that's not quite accurate, as a great deal of the novel concerns Boldt's wife Liz. Lou and Liz hit a rough patch several years previous to the events in THE BODY OF DAVID HAYES. It was during this period that Lou had a brief fling with Daphne Matthews and Liz had an affair with David Hayes, a brilliant computer specialist at Seattle's WestCorp Bank, where Liz is an executive. Lou and Liz were each aware of the other's infidelity; neither of them knew the identity of the other's partner. After Liz ended her affair with Hayes, he embarked on a scheme at the behest of the Russian Mafia wherein he used his computer skills to steal 17 million dollars from WestCorp. The money was never recovered.

Hayes is now out on parole and is seeking to recover the money, and with good reason: he has been put on notice by the Russian mob that his life is in danger if he cannot retrieve it. His intrusion back into Liz's life is sudden and dramatic. Hayes cannot recover the money without access to the inner computer workings of the bank, and Liz is his only way in. What is worse from Liz's standpoint is that her affair with Hayes will be revealed if she does not assist him. Liz, torn between protecting the bank and keeping her family safe, goes to Lou and confesses her prior involvement with Hayes as well as the potential for blackmail, which, of course, will affect Lou as well.

Pearson sets up a neat and interesting dichotomous situation here, whereby Lou has to compartmentalize his feelings as a jealous husband from his job as a law enforcement officer. Complicating matters is the Russian Mafia, who is squeezing Hayes physically and Liz emotionally, and Danny Foreman, a Washington State BCI investigator who is an old friend of the Boldts but whose investigation into Hayes's activities puts him at odds with Lou. The story races to a conclusion in which Lou attempts to orchestrate several different scenarios that take place simultaneously, all with the aim of preventing the recovery of the money while attempting to protect Liz from the terrible danger she is in.

Pearson in THE BODY OF DAVID HAYES has once again worked his unique magic, creating a plausible high-tech tale that never gets bogged down in the minutiae of computer jargon while playing his characters' emotions off of each other. The ultimate effects on Lou and Liz Boldt of the events that take place in THE BODY OF DAVID HAYES are left ambiguous at the end of the novel and will undoubtedly unfold in later installments of this series, providing both an expectation for the future and a realistic touch upon the personal lives of the characters. One is left truly caring about what will happen to these people; the ability to instill this emotion in his readers is, perhaps, Pearson's greatest strength in his formidable literary arsenal.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

Ridley Pearson is an author that I've come to eagerly await each new release with great anticipation. The Body of David Hayes was such a let down. The past several books have led up to a very interesting relationship between LaMoia and Daphne. They were hardly referred to in this book at all and it was as tho they were cardboard characters when reference was made to their relationship. The book could have been an opportunity for Lou and Liz Boldt to strengthen and grow within their relationship while letting the reader gain a greater understanding and appreciation of their characters. Instead, Lou and Liz are just about the last two folks I'd invite to lunch. They were boring, whiney, and for two people that have been thru as much as they have--they showed a marked non-understanding of each other and their characters as well as being unable to get past the past. If you are reading the Lou Boldt series for the first time--this is not representative of Pearson's ability or writing skill. Go back and read the previous books and then hope that he finds his muse again for the next book!

I should have expected nothing after the First Victim but Middle of Nowhere and Art of Deception set me up to hopefully learn more about John and Daphne and their budding relationship and more about Liz. But then Ridley made it seem like those two books didn't even exist with this whiney diatribe about how horrible Lou's life is with a "cheating" wife and how he doesn't understand how his lover Daphne could go off with someone such as John LaMoia. Puhleeeeeeeeeeeeeze!!!!!
And Has Ridley spent anytime in the Seattle area recently--I don't think so!!!!!

This will be the last Lou Boldt book I buy. It might also be the last Ridley Pearson book I buy. Tea-drinking, jazz-playing, sensitive but competent Lou has finally become an utter bore. This time out, the story never quite takes off, and it never really pays off. (If you don't count the revelation the Boldt's son, Miles - MILES! - is actually a child prodigy, a little Mozart.) Mainly we trudge along, knee-deep in Lou and Liz's struggle with her past infidelity. Boldt doesn't actually DO anything but wrestle with his emotions. Even LaMoia fails to light things up, seemingly just along for the ride. I almost didn't read the last 20 pages!

Reader beware....

from the timeline descreptancies (Which Anne & Elizabeth have graciously and carefully pointed out), to the Whiney discordant BS that Lou Boldt dishes out in this book, to the big publisity stunt the Pearson people pulled to try to get us to buy this hardback (the "Lost Chapter" signed by Ridley if you buy the hard back between April 6th and 23rd--I wasn't eligible because I bought it before April 6th from an Amazon marketplace distributor), this book has proven to be a huge disappointment. The thing is that the "lost chapter" is now available for FREE on Ridley Pearson's website. It is even more poorly written than the book--just plain sleaze, not the good romance and lovemaking that Susan Andersen, Stella Cameron, Karen Young, and Linda Howard write--it's just bad sleaze.
Boldt cvan'[t seem to reconcile the fact that Daphne has grown beyond loving and yearning for him, and John has grown beyond the need for a mentor. Daphne and John have found themselves in each other and a baby that needs both of them and Boldt resents this. He also resents his wife's affair which (as the lost chapter points out) was his own fault--he's a workaholic. But this time, we only see Boldt's POV (90% of the time anyway) and he uses every opportunity he can to punish Liz--even to the point of throwing his one night stand with Daphne in her face, thereby distracting her from what she needs to do in the trade of clothes with Daphne and thus putting her life (and Daphne's) at risk. The other thing that bothers me is how proud Lou is of MIles--too proud, almost to the point of being a stage parent. I never really like Lou Boldt--much preferred Daphne and Bobbie Gaynes, now that I've reread the series, John LaMoia is growing on me rapidly. Reminds me strongly of John Stamos's character on Full House (the supposedly womanizing but actually very loving and sensitive Uncle Jesse Katsopolis). Boldt always struck me as a little self absorbed and I always wondered if I was giving Liz a fair shake. Well now I know I needed to give Liz the benefit of the doubt. Lou is a definite anithero. It is my opinion that Ridley Pearson has lost much of his credibility as a writer and that Time Warner will give Pearson notice that his next book better be better. Frankly, I would like to see Lou Boldt killed off and John LaMoia take his place as the real hero.

The fast-paced and engrossing THE BODY OF DAVID HAYNES is the ninth outing for Lou Boldt. Boldt is somewhat of a legend in the SPD. He has the highest case clearance per average in the history in the Seattle Police Department. The book opens when he is called to a scene where friend and fellow officer is drugged and beaten on a stakeout of a trailer. Missing from the scene is David Hayes, the subject of the stakeout. Six years earlier David Hayes worked as technical computer support in the same bank where Lou's wife, Liz was an officer. During a dark time in the Boldt marriage, Liz had an affair with David Hayes and it almost destroyed the Boldt marriage. After the affair was over Hayes embezzled seventeen million dollars from the bank. He was caught, but the money was never recovered. Several parties are interested in retrieving the money now that Hayes is released from jail including the bank, police, and the original owners of the money, the Russian mob. David is on the run and he contacts Liz to help him get the money, which has been in limbo since his arrest. He is afraid for his life if he does not get the money back to the mob he stole it from. Liz is only one of few that has access to the codes to transfer the money. Events escalate until both the Boldt's marriage and their children are threatened. Boldt is put into the position of having to protect his family over the interests of the police department.

From the very first page, the reader is drawn into this story. It is an extremely well plotted thriller that has the suspense building throughout the whole story until the very end. As good as the story is there is more at play here than just another good thriller which many books can claim to be. Where Pearson excels is at the finely tuned drawing of his characters as human beings, their frailties and their proclivity for secrets that come back to haunt them. The scenes between the Boldts are fraught with anger, hurt, tension and love as they try to get past wounds that could unravel their marriage. This is one of the best books I have read in a long time.

Having read all of Ridley Pearson's books and thoroughly enjoyed every one, I'm wondering if he really wrote The Body of David Hayes. It just does not measure up to his previous novels. Other reviewers have pointed out the timeline discrepancy, and I could not get "connected" with the characters as I have in the past. And to think, this is the first Pearson novel I've purchased in hardback!