The Bodies Left Behind

By: Jeffery Deaver

Narrated by: Holter Graham

Length: 12 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

When a night-time call to 911 from a secluded Wisconsin vacation house is cut short, off-duty deputy Brynn McKenzie leaves her husband and son at the dinner table and drives up to Lake Mondac to investigate. Was it a misdial or an aborted crime report?

Brynn stumbles onto a scene of true horror and narrowly escapes from two professional criminals. She and a terrified visitor to the weekend house, Michelle, flee into the woods in a race for their lives. As different as night and day, and stripped of modern-day resources, Brynn, a tough deputy with a difficult past, and Michelle, a pampered city girl, must overcome their natural reluctance to trust each other and learn to use their wits and courage to survive the relentless pursuit. The deputy's disappearance spurs both her troubled son and her new husband into action, while the incident sets in motion Brynn's loyal fellow deputies and elements from Milwaukee's underside. These various forces race along inexorably toward the novel's gritty and stunning conclusion.

The Bodies Left Behind is an epic cat-and-mouse chase, told nearly in real-time, and is filled with Deaver's patented twists and turns, where nothing is what it seems, and death lingers just around the next curve on a deserted path deep in the midnight forest.

©2008 Jeffery Deaver (P)2008 Simon & Schuster

Critic reviews

• Winner, 2009 Thriller Award, Best Thriller of the Year

Kept me guessing until the end

Deaver does it again and kept me intrigued all the way! I thought I had it figured out about half-way through. Then things changed and I thought I had it figured out about 3/4 of the way through and then close to the end I thought I had it figured out. But things kept changing and didn't get wrapped up neat and tidy until the end of the book. This one was definitely a good thriller, with lots of twists and turns as has been noted by other reviewers. In the first half nothing much seems to happen but then again nothing much that happens in the first half is as it seems to be so when you look back on the first half things were definitely not as straightforward as they seemed. All in all, this was an enjoyable listen and one of my favorites in the thrillers category.

I agree - too many twists

Linda, who reviewed this book right before me, was right on with her comment about this story having too many twists. I don't think Deaver did a good job of setting up sequences of events that allowed the twists to make perfect sense when they were revealed. He developed some complex characters and dispensed balancing qualities that allowed you to alternately feel good about the bad guys and bad about the good guys. Others may think that some of the loose ends left at the book's conclusion let the reader surmise why things happened like they did. Not me. I like more closure. I liked Deaver's earlier Lincoln Rhyme novels but I'm afraid his more recent efforts haven't passed muster. Even with all that said, this book was a pleasant listen.

Good read, but a bit drawn out

I read this during the drive to and from NC from DC. It helped pass the time, but there were several times I felt the plot could have come to a logical conclusion without more twists and turns.

Good stuff

I enjoyed the book but after finishing the book, realized that some things really didn't make sense. Overall, I enjoyed the twists.

I realized I had listened before but did so ago

I liked the story line, the twists and turns and I always appreciate a strong female character that is not be one dimensional. Good story line, well read.

Lots of Twists

I read the reviews prior to downloading this book so I wasn't really expecting much. But, I really liked it. It had the twists and turns of a good suspense novel. There are some questions that I believe were left unanswered but I believe it's more from the fact that I over analyze things. Overall, I enjoyed this audiobook.

Interesting Twist of Events

Enjoyed the story and the twist of events as the story progresses forward. Worth the listen

entertaining

I really enjoyed the story. The characters were well thought out. It was a good story.

Great listen

Thought this was a very good audiobook like all the other Lincoln Rhyme stories.

Loved every minute

I would have scored all areas a 10 if I could have will definitely look for more like this.