The Devil’s Teardrop by Jeffery Deaver, is a standalone novel, featuring Special Agent Margaret Lukas and document examiner Parker Kincaid. The story is set in a time frame of less than 12 hours on the last day of the previous millennium i.e. 31.12.1999.The novel starts with a lone gunman, calling himself the Digger, spraying bullets from a silenced machine gun into a crowded station on New Year’s Eve in Washington. Sometimes later the mayor gets a ransom note asking him to pay $20 million, or else Digger would go on shooting at regular intervals. Agent Lucas heads the case, calls on Kincaid, to help trace evidence from the note delivered to the mayor. In the meantime, a hit and run victim, is identified as the controller of he Digger. Now, with on one to control the gunman, he will kill time and time again, before someone stops him.This is pure VINTAGE DEAVER. The plot, in itself would fool the reader. Halfway into the book, I felt that, this was all about catching and stopping the digger, but somewhere Deaver was chuckling, and I was fooled. Because, during the last 50 odd pages, he started twisting me around, and presented me with a plot, which was ingenious and devilish to the core. This book is a must read for any thriller lover.Characters were well drawn up. The special feature, which I like in a Deaver novel is, that his antagonists are much more intriguing than his protagonists, they are evil to the core, doesn’t hesitate to kill. What makes them scare and interesting is that, Deaver through them makes us realise, that actually in the world out there, people roam about, with suck psychopathically evil tendencies.As always, he didn’t waste much words on the personal lives of the protagonists, they were given pages, but never did those information become a burden to the plot. They were perfect in size, to be appreciated in between the flow of the plot. And, like his other books even this one was a treasure trove of information, as in Maiden’s Grave he told us about the world of the physically challenged, in this one, he makes us go through the world of calligraphy and forgery.The reason, I gave 4 stars instead of 5, was a minor point in the plot, which I found hard to believe. Except that this book deserved a 5 star rating.P.S. There is a cameo appearance, in this book, from one of his regular protagonists.
Total brain candy and I'm okay with that, it's summer. In case I haven't mentioned this before, brain candy is escapist reading, stuff you wouldn't want to read all the time because just like real candy, it's not good for you. You might think that would mean light, sweet, fluffy reading but to me that's only part of it. I love thrillers but I have to confess I am not sure they are all that good for your brain because I'm not sure I do a lot of time thinking about big questions when i read them, I admit it, I am racing to find out what happens. The big questions are often being asked, I just don't want to really think about them I'm just looking for entertainment. I tend to keep a couple of brain candy paperbacks handy in my purse or backpack for reading during piano lessons, in the waiting room at the doctor's and dentists, or just when I need a break from something that requires a little more heavy lifting on my part. Such was the case with The Devil's Teardrop. So, I like Jeffrey Deaver and while this has a scary nasty premise it's not my favorite. No particular reason, might be because I read another of his not long ago and it felt a touch formulaic. This story only had a fleeting reference to Lincoln Rhyme, Deaver's best known protagonist but since I actually tend to get tired of most series that's usually a plus. And the bits about handwriting and forgeries was pretty interesting so I don't know why it's not getting four starts but it's not.But, back to the scary nasty. So. What if you had a pair of killers, one who masterminds and one who does the actual killing. And let's say that the Brains behind the operation sets things up so that the Killer will proceed with a plan to commit multiple killing sprees unless he gets the signal to stop. And then let's say that the Brains is killed accidentally just after the "ransom note" is dropped off but before the deadline to respond has even expired and the Killer just goes on killing? Well, it's Jeffrey Deaver and those what ifs are bound to be multiplied and keep you guessing right to the very end. Only this time I guessed before the very end but because I was expecting more plot twists the surprise was actually that I had guessed. As surprises go, it was kind of a bummer. Three stars.
What do You think about The Devil's Teardrop (2000)?
Parker Kinkaid is an expert document analyst that's retired from the FBI to have a safer home environment for his two children. On New Years Eve in Washington, DC, a shooter kills many people at a subway station and a note is left for the mayor. Pay $20M or face three more shootings before the end of the night. The FBI brings in Kinkaid to take a look at the note and see what he can learn about the killer. Kinkaid finds one notable trait, what he calls the devil's teardrop, the dot on the i lifting up to make it look like a tear. Using this and other information, the team try to determine who is behind this and how to stop him. This is the first Deaver book I've read and I was underwhelmed. The characters were rather one-dimensional. I couldn't connect with them so I didn't care what happened to them. Deaver tried at the beginning to get us to connect with Kinkaid through his children but by the time he was working he had lost much of his draw for me. It also felt to me like Deaver was creating characteristics for the characters just so they could be used to drive the mystery. All of the suspense in this book was kept for the last 50-75 pages and by that time I was rather complacent about it. I'm not even sure if I'm interested in picking up another Deaver book after this one.
—Lauren
It’s New Year’s Eve and a killer called The Digger is shooting people at random. The FBI have a ransom note which needs to be responded to before he goes on his biggest spree yet. They call in ex-agent Parker Kincaid, who is an expert in examining documents to find the clues they need.As you would expect in a Jeffrey Deaver novel, there are plenty of twists and turns, especially towards the end, and it’s never as simple as it seems. I’m used to reading Lincoln Rhyme books, but no matter who the protagonist is, they are a) not going to have an easy time of it and b) going to make a great story as they work to catch the killer.Parker seems to be pretty uptight, although he is in the middle of a custody case so it’s hardly surprising. His love for his children is immense although may be a little overstated. At several points, I was like: “We get it!” but it just ramps up how much he really wants to protect them.Things are set up perfectly, technical bits explained without being patronising and the structure of the story is great. It takes place over one evening, with each chapter a new time, with the hours marching ever onwards.
—Christine Blachford
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS SO DO NOT READ IT IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK YET.I am enjoying this story with a lot of plot twists. There are a lot of killings. I really doubt that any criminal masterminds are as smart as Jeffery Deaver made his criminal. But it's a good story except the document analysis got boring at times. OK I am almost done with this. For a book that had such a great plot it sure had a very stupid ending. The mastermind was a rich boy and he pretended to be a detective and
—Jane
