Review by Booklist Review
A furious rain storm causes a levee in a small California town to collapse. Dorion Shaw, a specialist in disaster management, volunteers her services. She also calls in her brother, Colter, to see if he can help locate a family whose vehicle was caught up in the raging waters. Colter Shaw is, of course, the star of his own series of novels; he's a reward seeker, which means he finds missing people for a living. (He's also featured on television, in the series Tracker.) As he races against time to find the missing family, Colter begins to suspect that the levee's collapse isn't entirely due to the force of nature. Could there be a human element lurking in the shadows? Deaver is a first-class storyteller. As he does with his Lincoln Rhyme and Kathryn Dance books, he takes an interesting, complex character (Colter comes from a survivalist family) and builds an intricate, unpredictable story around them. Readers familiar with Mr. Shaw will thoroughly enjoy this novel. For those who haven't met him yet, this is a good time to rectify that.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Expert tracker Colter Shaw, who collects rewards for finding fugitives and missing persons, pursues a suspicious new case while probing his family's past in this riveting fifth series entry from Deaver (after Hunting Time). At the outset, Colter learns that a woman named Margaret has called a mutual acquaintance seeking information about his family. The puzzle deepens when Colter finds a letter from his late father referencing a daughter Colter has never heard of. Then Colter's younger sister, Dorion, asks him for help. Dorion is a natural disaster expert who's been called into Hinowah, Calif., after the collapse of a levee washes away four people in an SUV and threatens to flood the entire town. She hopes Colter can find the missing people in time to save their lives. After he arrives in Hinowah, Colter detects explosive residue near the site of the initial breach, adding the hunt for a criminal to his daunting, time-sensitive rescue mission. Deaver's pacing is characteristically top-notch, and he ratchets up the suspense with Colter's unresolved questions about his potentially long-lost half sister. This series has plenty of gas in the tank. Agent: Deborah Schneider, Gelfman Schneider Literary. (May)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Skilled at the page-turner, Deaver (the Lincoln Rhyme novels) returns to his Colter Shaw series with a follow-up to Hunting Time. In Hinowah, a small Northern California town, a levee fails with three cars traversing its unpaved crest, sending two of them into the water. Dorion Shaw, a disaster response specialist, arrives on the scene and immediately summons her brother Colter. Raised in a survivalist family on a compound not far from the town, Colter makes his living as a reward-hunting tracker. Dorion needs his help to find the vehicles and rescue the passengers as she attempts to save the town from flooding. When Colter is attacked during his efforts, the cause of the levee breach becomes suspect. Who benefits from the obliteration of Hinowah, and can they be thwarted? This suspenseful thriller will keep readers off-balance and unsure whom to trust as Colter and Dorion race against the clock to save the town, find the missing, and solve a crime. VERDICT Tracking the elapsed time from initial collapse encourages speed reading as if to aid the Shaws in their efforts. Perfect for a one-sitting read.--Laura A.B. Cifelli
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