Review: Roadside Crosses by Jeffery Deaver

Title: Roadside Crosses

Author: Jeffery Deaver

Genre: Suspense/Thriller

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton, 2009

397p.

Synopsis: A highway patrolman notices a roadside memorial cross and on investigation discovers the attached date to be the following day: the day police will find a young girl left for dead in the trunk of a car. Agent Kathryn Dance , a kinesics expert with the Californian Bureau of Investigation is called onto the case and the teenage survivor points her to an online community and a situation of vicious bullying and personal attacks on one person. Has the victim decided to retaliate? Soon more roadside crosses are discovered.....

I've always enjoyed the Lincoln Rhyme series but not so much some of Jeffery Deaver's other books. This is the third in his new series featuring Kathryn Dance and it's a reasonably good thriller. Plenty of suspense and enough turns , twists and red herrings in the plot to keep the pages turning although I could have done with a few less subplots which I don't think were entirely necessary.

I like Kathryn Dance and it was interesting learning a little more about kinesics, the study of body language...... but, oh dear , Mr Deaver, why do you insist on constantly referring to her as Dance. Okay in a professional situation but surely when she speaks it could be 'said Kathryn'.

And then you have her driving with her i pod earbuds in...........tut tut!!

Sometimes it's the little things that niggle the most.

The story revolves around the darker side of the internet : the world of Facebook, MySpace, blogging and roleplaying games and the effect particularly on young people as the boundaries between the synthetic world and the real world blur and become distorted. Cyberbullying, vicious flaming, untruthful rumours and the damage this can do..........scary and thought provoking.

Overall I enjoyed it ................good but not great.