Rating: 
Summary: Cheap Tricks
Review: In one sense, this book is an easy read. In another, it doesn't make much sense. I kept looking back to see if I missed something on the previous page(s). When an author withholds information that would allow the reader to understand what's going on, and never explains suppositions that guide central characters' judgments and actions relative to each other, the reader is faced with wading through writing tricks masquerading as suspense and character development. That's what we have here. Pretty thin stuff. In the end, the main character Lou Boldt is described as lieing in the post incident police investigation. The author doesn't even offer us that writer's gimmick to tie together the story (as well as exposing true police procedure).
The consensus of reviewers is that other Pearson novels in this series are better. I'll have to check one more.
Rating:
Summary: Contrivance
Review: Pearson likes to take technology or science and fashion a plot around cutting edge discoveries. This time the science is old,and the ultimate solution is unexplained and leaves the reader unsatisfied. The relationship between Boldt and his wife, with all they have been through, just doesn't feel right in this one. He's done better.
Rating: 
Summary: THE BODY OF DAVID HAYES by Ridley Pearson - Review
Review: Ridley Pearson does a masterful job of leading us into the lives of Liz and Lou Boldt as the bomb of David Hayes release, and Liz's long-ago infidelity, drops on their heads. Only if they work together can they hope to escape the fall out. From personal to professional crisis, both Boldts are stretched to their physical and emotional limits. This is nail-biting tension at it's best. Pearson's intricate plotting of smart moves and countermoves will keep you up all night. You don't want to miss this one!
Rating:
Summary: Not one of his best by a long shot
Review: 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!
Rating: 
Summary: An incredibly, boring, disappointment
Review: 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!
Rating:
Summary: An incredibly, boring, disappointment
Review: 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!
Rating:
Summary: The Body of David Hayes - More than a Thriller
Review: Ridley Pearson's latest offering in the Lou Boldt series is one that combines Pearson's talent for writing outstanding police procedurals with his insight into human behavior. While the basic story is a thriller and Boldt is put through his paces dealing with a thief, the Russian Mafia, his own colleagues and Liz's co-workers at the bank (the tension level starts on high and remains there), the deeper story is one of two people, Lou and Liz, trying to put a marriage back together and protect their family and their careers. It's a story of betrayals and forgiveness with a healthy dose of realism.Pearson's portrayal of the conflicts and cooperation between the different branches of law enforcement give the reader what I believe is a very realistic portrayal of the "system", both the good and the bad.
Rating:
Summary: If He's Dead, Where is the Body?
Review: Seattle Homicide Detective Lou Boldt is back in his ninth Ridley Pearson thriller and he's called to the assault of an old friend, BCI officer Danny Foreman. BCI stands for Bureau of Criminal Investigation, sort of Washington State's version of a local FBI. Foreman had been drugged and beaten and he tells Boldt that David Hayes is getting out of jail soon.
Years ago Hayes stole seventeen million dollars from the bank where Lou's wife Liz is an executive. He also had an affair with her and that's hard for Lou to handle. The money was never recovered and it was a black mark on Foreman's career. Lou suspects Foreman of going after Hayes, but does he want to clear up an old case or does he want the money for himself.
And there is a mean as nails Russian Mafia boss who is after Hayes as well, because it was his money that was stolen. And everybody seems to be after Lou's wife, because the money is apparently still in the bank's system, but only Hayes with his special software can get at it to wire it out and he needs Liz to gain access to the computer. So does the Russian Mafia guy. Then all of a sudden Hayes goes missing, leaving only a bloody crime scene in his wake. It looks like he's been killed, but there is no body. But someone is still after Liz. What gives?
This is a nonstop, action packed thriller that won't let you go till you're finished. Mr. Pearson has given new life to Lt. Lou Boldt by showing us his personal and very human side. I just can't praise this book enough.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent police procedural
Review: Six years ago, Lieutenant Lou Boldt's wife Liz had an affair with one of her co-workers and he found out about it. The man was convicted of embezzlement ($17 million worth) even though it was never found and in the mean time the Boldts put their marriage back together. Now David Hayes is out on parole and has gotten in touch with Liz who meets him to tell him she won't help him get the money. He sweet talks her into thinking about it but when she leaves him she goes to Lou and tells him everything. Although Lou is very angry, he holds his emotions in check because he knows there are very dangerous people who want to use Liz to get the money from a con artist to a Russian Mafioso to an over zealous police man. They only have a few days to get the money because the bank is merging with another bank and the way David set the system up, the money will be lost forever once the two financial institutions merge Law, Liz and a few trusted friends race against time to outsmart the thieves without risking their lives and their jobs. Once again Ridley Pearson writes a wonderful crime thriller that is so mesmerizing the audience will read it in one sitting. The readers obtain an up front and personal look into the lives of the Boldts as they deal with guilty consciences and a crisis that could destroy their marriage. THE BODY OF DAVID HAYES is a tremendous tale that deserves best seller status. Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: Pearson's Greatest Strengths are Exhibited Here
Review: 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
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