Thursday, November 7, 2013

The October List (Jeffery Deaver)



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. 

MY RATING - 5