There
are very few novels where I have been so surprised by plot developments that I
have physically gasped and covered my mouth.
Jeffery Deaver has written something so original here that I’m still
scratching my head trying to figure out how he did it. Because you see, The October List is written entirely backwards; we start right with
the ending and go straight back to the beginning. Even the table of contents comes after the
whole book.
As
I first sat down to read, I was immediately confused. I quickly figured out that Deaver had me
right where he wanted me. We start with
the end, where a scared-to-death mother is desperately waiting for news about
her kidnapped daughter. In each
successive chapter, we go back hours (or sometimes even minutes) before to see
what brought us to that point. Once I
thought I had everything figured out, Deaver quickly threw something in my way
that turned the entire (and I mean entire) plot around.
I
started off cursing this book and ended up praising Deaver’s genius. I actually don’t think I would have liked the
book as much if it WASN’T backwards. Be
sure to reread the first chapter to make the whole thing come full circle.
