The Art of Deception

Rating:
Summary: Riveting suspense!
Review: I just finished reading Ridley Pearson's book, "The Art of Deception." Amazon staff had recommended Pearson's books based on their knowledge of my preferred suspense writers, and they really hit the nail on the head with Pearson! I'm about to put more of his on my wish list for next month's purchase. This book has likeable, realistic characters with multiple twists and turns, literally. It's one of those "hard to put down" books, and well worth the investment for the reading pleasure it brings.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing entry in a great series
Review: I love the Lou Boldt series and always buy the new entries as soon as they come out in hardcover. But with this novel, for the first time I was disappointed. Instead of a Lou Boldt story, this was primarily about Daphne, and though I like her as a supplemental character in the Boldt stories, when she takes center stage, I find her annoying and one-dimensional. The developing romance with LaMoia felt cliched and utterly predictable, and seemed out of character for both. It really just served as a distraction from the multiple investigations that comprised the plot of the novel. And speaking of those investigations, the side plot of Billy Chen's death was unnecessary and a stretch. The whole mystery was convoluted and hard to follow, not in a suspenseful way but in a disorganized way. It took forever to get into this novel and if it hadn't been the only thing I had to read on a long plane ride, I probably wouldn't have even finished it. I hope the next entry in the Boldt series is an actual Boldt book, and I hope Pearson can get his mysteries back into tightly plotted, riveting form.

Rating:
Summary: Daphine Character Disappoints
Review: In this latest book,the character Daphine comes across as neither a competent psychologist or police officer. The author presents her as unsure of herself in either role. Being confused with the facts of a troubling and complicated case is one thing, but to have role confusion undermined her character. She was the least strong character and seemed to rely on the male characters to be rescued and supported. The reader catches on to who is quilty before her character ever has a clue. Otherwise, the story was interesting enough to make up for this one annoying character-development flaw.

Rating:
Summary: Pearson Has Done It Again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: LaMoia has beaten an addiction to oxycodone, and Matthews is turning into the workaholic that Boldt narrowly avoids becoming.
Matthews does a favor for LaMoia and is sucked into a mess of stalking, voyuerism and murder. Her houseboat becomes an unsafe place, so she has two choices--move in with LaMoia or move into a hotel. Thank goodness she has the sense to know she needs to move in with a friend. Contrary to some reviewers, I found Daphne to be a strong woman again, but often unwilling to ask for help. Boldt is aware of a growing closeness between LaMoia and Matthews and it bothers him--but not to the point where it interferes in his doing his job. He's able to clear a relative(?) of Mama Lu's by proving he was murdered--then they find the killer(s) after Daphne is abducted. Too late to save the homeless, pregnant teen but not to save her baby, Daphne, and LaMoia.

Rating:
Summary: grandmaster of the police procedural
Review: Lieutenant Lou Boldt of the Seattle Police department is back in the field and enjoying every moment of it except that two women have disappeared and the police don't have a clue what happened to them. One of the women is his wife's friend so it is very important to Lou that he solves the case so the families can have some kind of closure.

Police psychologist Lieutenant Daphne Matthews finds herself deeply involved in a case that might tie in to Lou's. The brother of a woman who was killed and thrown off a bridge insists he has some knowledge about the two missing women. The problem is that he wants to deal on his own terms with only Daphne with whom he has taken an unholy interest in.

Readers of this long running and popular series will feel very comfortable with the way the characters are evolving, especially Sergeant La Moia who is in control of his sexual and drug addictions. His relationship with Daphne is also evolving into something more personal and the audience will think this pairing makes for a better story. The mystery is complex, intricate and totally absorbing, a one sitting read that shows why Ridley Pearson is the grandmaster of the police procedural.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Seattle Underground In A Star Turn
Review: Lou Boldt is third banana in "The Art of Deception" and psychologist Daphne Matthews takes over the lead with studly Jack LaMoia in the co-starring role. This freshens up a series that was running on fumes. Lou's troubles (wife with cancer, guilt ridden affair with Daphne, job dissatisfaction) were taking on the proportions of Job and becoming tiresome.

A troubled young woman is tossed off the Aurora Bridge. Lou is investigating the disappearance of two local women, one of whom is a personal friend and takes on a request from Mama Lu to investigate the "accidental" death of her cousin, Billy Chen. Daphne is up to her elbows in charity work at a local woman's shelter and trying to turn the life of a pregnant client around. All of these threads lead to the Seattle Underground, a city below the city, buried over more than 100 years ago.

Mr. Pearson excels on two levels: his characterizations are sharp and interesting. Via Daphne, Pearson gives us an in-depth look at suspects Lanny Neal, Ferrell Walker, and Nathan Priar. He keeps them in our face, and they are always lurking (sometimes literally) at the edges of our thoughts. Secondly, the locale. Pearson is magnificent in putting us in Seattle; you feel you should be reading holding an umbrella. And then the underground---the decay, the sickening odors and terrain, the sense of claustrophobia, the occasional dusty shop window untouched in 100 years reflecting your surprised image, the very real sense of an imminent cave in, and LaMoia's comment that graveyards are over their heads.

This is an excellent read with a smash of a finale and Pearson ties up the threads as neatly as an expert tailor. I could have done with a little less of Daphne's interior monologues. Sometimes I wondered what she was doing besides being lost in thought while all this furious action was taking place. Also feel the subplots of Margaret; Daphne's client, and Billy Chen were there strictly for plot purposes, not for their necessity to the story. However, these are minor quibbles. The gruesome level is fairly high, but manageable for all but the very faint hearted. "The Art of Deception" is an excellent addition to Ridley Pearson's fine stories.
-sweetmolly-Amazon Reviewer

Rating:
Summary: Just When You Think You Have It All Figured Out...
Review: Mary-Ann Walker has always been terrified of heights. But on this night, her head damp with blood and life quickly escaping her body, the fear of falling has been replaced with surreal weightlessness. As Mary-Ann plunges into the water below, she wonders why she's been afraid of heights all these years.

Forensic psychologist Daphne Matthews receives a 342 on her police radio. A body's been spotted in the Seattle harbor. And so "The Art of Deception" begins.

The pursuit of Mary-Ann's Killer leads Daphne straight into a murderer's line of sight. As two other disappearances cross paths in the investigation, Daphne and her colleagues desperately search for a madman.

The trail leads to a long-forgotten Seattle: the underground. The dark maze is a major puzzle. When Daphne is reported missing, her former love Lieutenant Lou Boldt and her new love Sergeant LaMoia have to put the pieces together if they want to bring her back alive.

Only as the police think they have the murderer pegged and the case solved do they truly understand the art of deception.

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable and thrilling.
Review: Mary-Ann Walker has struggled with difficulties all her life. From the secrets buried in her family's past, to her abusive boyfriend.

Daphne Matthews is a forensic psychologist trying to cope with the memory of a teenage runaway who committed suicide a year earlier. Daphne is the first to arrive at the crime scene where a young woman's body has been found underneath the Aurora Bridge.

After a positive ID the body is that of Mary-Ann. Did the woman commit suicide, or was she killed?

Mary-Ann's brother is pointing the finger at the abusive boyfriend, and the boyfriend swears his innocence.

Daphne knows this case is shrouded in secrets, but what she doesn't know is that a stalker is watching her every move. Is this person there to help, or harm her?

With the help of Lieutenant Lou Boldt and Sergeant John LaMoia, Daphne will unravel the lies surrounding Mary-Ann and begin a game of cat and mouse with a killer so cunning if she is not careful she may be the next victim.

'Art Of Deception' is a fun thriller. Parts of the novel are a little hard to follow but the overall plot is thoroughly enjoyable. Matthews, Boldt and LaMoia are great characters, and readers will welcome them back in this new investigation.

Ridley Pearson has written a thriller that will please his many fans. With it's complex plot, fast pace, and exciting climax 'Art Of Deception' will ride the best-seller list's, and prove to be a good late summer beach read.

Nick Gonnella

Rating:
Summary: Boldt takes a back seat
Review: New focus on other detectives and some truly suspenseful scenes highlight this new entry in the Boldt series. Some creepy characters show interest in Daphne Matthews and put her in serious danger ending in places we've never heard of. Good read.

Rating:
Summary: Underground intrigue
Review: Police psychologist (or "profiler") Daphne Mathews has a long history in these exciting Seattle stories, and with Police Lt. Boldt, her mentor, idol, and more. Here she finally takes front center stage, with Boldt usually far in the background, and that ain't good. One thing that becomes clear is that Daphne is not only a bold, if erroneous, profiler, but is personally a bundle of boiling insecurities and anxieties in all directions. Here she seems like a caricatured throwback to pre-feminist women who sterotypically fall apart under pressure. I found this offensive, and maddening because it's not clear why she's suddenly folded into gibbering paranoia. While she tries to deceive her prime suspect into revealing himself, he is tying her up in his own unsuspected web of masterful deceptions.

The authorial tactic of personally involving the hero in criminal attacks is a cheap way for an author to ratchet up tension in his story without the effort of creating another victim from whole cloth-but you also know he won't eliminate a central series character. This tactic also tends to turn a "good, clean" mystery into an hysterical horror story-the reason I don't read Patricia Cornwall's Kay Scarpetta series anymore. Sorry, you might not have the same dislike.

What's neat is that even with a suspect in hand early, there are more surprises. And Pearson has again researched obscure facts about the city of Seattle that provide vital sidelights. There are two suspects chased into a fascinating Underground historic city (who knew?)-but how Boldt decides between the two eerie suspects is still a mystery to me. It's stock in this genre not to follow police procedure at critical moments because the detective is "special" or taking brilliant shortcuts-just so the author can put a desperately frazzled Lt. Mathews into the hands of unsuspected murderers. And real smart crooks don't go out of their way to toy with police. The chapter titles provide an amusing by-play.