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XO

Kathryn Dance #3

by Jeffery Deaver

genre: mystery, thriller, contemporary

XO by Jeffery DeaverVivid descriptions that will haunt your dreams. Without being too gory, Deaver manages to paint horrifying pictures. To those of you who know Deaver in person, be careful not to piss him off. His methods of killing people (in XO) are creative and disturbing. The amount of effort put into this publication is astounding. I’ve seen authors create jewelry from their books, Ermisenda and I have created t-shirts, and some authors have created playlists, but XO has had a singer record all of the main character’s songs. Supposedly, Deaver has even hidden clues in the music. I haven’t listened to them except the main song which you can download for free. Beautiful vocals, but wasn’t interested in the full collection. But enough about that, back to the book!

Synopsis from Goodreads

Deaver sets his heroine Kathryn Dance on a quest to stop an obsessive stalker from destroying a beautiful young country singer.     Kayleigh Towne is gorgeous with a voice that is taking her to the heights of the country pop charts. Her hit single “Your Shadow” puts her happily in the spotlight, until an innocent exchange with one of her fans leads Kayleigh into a dark and terrifying realm. The fan warns, “I’m coming for you,” and soon accidents happen and people close to Kayleigh die. Special Agent Kathryn Dance must use her considerable skills at investigation and body language analysis to stop the stalker—but before long she learns that, like many celebrities, Kayleigh has more than just one fan with a mission. A former folksinger, Deaver has written the actual song, “Your Shadow.” Readers will be able to download it from his website, JefferyDeaver.com.

Review

Can I rate this 6 stars? One of the best books I’ve ever read. There are not enough positive adjectives to pile up. What made it so great? I’ve never been good at figuring out the who-done-it, but I had my suspicions. When the book is about a stalker and people close to the love interest start dying, the stalker is the too obvious choice. I had it all figured out, then the biggest red herring comes in and poops all over my plans leaving my mental map crumpled and useless. I was actually admiring a character I thought I’d never like. Then a second red herring comes in and confuses things even more. There were points I had to rewind and listen to in again, not because Deaver did a bad job, but because it was so good and there were so many twists, then I couldn’t keep up. It’s like one of those spy novels where people are always double or triple crossing one another so that you’re left thinking, “whose side are you on???”

There are also some amazing quotes that I will eventually want to do a full post on.

love quote from XOMusic: listen for yourself.

PS, if you’re not on Goodreads yet, and you’re an avid reader, please join us! I wouldn’t have found this book had I not been in a Goodreads challenge to read a book starting with every letter of the alphabet. X was slim pickings, let me tell you, but it worked out beautifully.

5 out of 5 stars
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-Eliabeth Hawthorne