I’ve read a few Jeffery Deaver books and I’ve enjoyed them so I was looking forward to reading The Never Game, especially as it introduces a new character for this series. The Never Game is fast paced and lovers of thrills and possibly video games will enjoy this one. For me though, I found it only ok. I didn’t connect to it easily and I found it a little drawn out in places. On the whole it’s a good start to a new series, I just found it a bit slow for me.

Received ARC from Harper Collins for honest read and review.

I have been an avid reader of Mr Deavers books for years now and this first in a new series did not disappoint. An entertaining and enjoyable read centering around Colter Shaw in Silicon Valley.It follows him as he tries to find a kidnapper who is using a video game as a plot to kill people.

A railroading read that I could not put down.

The Never Game is the first book I've read by Jeffery Deaver. It pulled me in from the first page and kept me on the edge of my seat for the rest of the book.

A girl has gone missing and Colter Shaw is seeking the reward offered by the missing girl's father to help find her. Along the way, Colter discovered many things linking this to a sadistic game of The Whispering Man.

Who is the Whispering Man in this case? There were various suspects, and based on Colter's background, he likes to assign percentages based on how likely something is.

It was a really thrilling read, and it seems the end of the book is starting to introduce us to Colter's next adventure.

8/10

I haven’t read a Deaver for some time but I’m fond of his Lincoln Ryhme series and some of his standalone books have been excellent so when I saw this on offer I snatched at it. As predicted, it was a fun read with plenty of intrigue, twists and turns.

This series introduces a new character of Colter Shaw, a reward hunter but with scruples who picks and chooses which case to go after based on the people involved. In this one he gets dragged into a mystery in Silicon Valley where a number of seemingly unrelated kidnappings are occurring in a technical backdrop in the world of computing. Shaw and his unique tracking skills set about finding the missing people.

Shaw is an interesting character with plenty of information provided on how he’s got his skills and his family life. Some of the characters after that are less well padded out but you might not expect great characterisation in a 400 page thriller. This didn’t deter from the plot as things kept up a nice pace with chapters flying by and plenty of new discoveries to make you question what you thought you knew.

I know for a fact I would read more from this series, it was exactly what I’d expect and want from this type of book. It might be easily forgettable by the time the next one in the series out but I have a feeling that won’t overly matter. A fun read whilst absorbed in it and Deaver has another solid story under his belt again. I also now have no desire to try and buy a house in Silicon Valley, it sounds worse than London house prices!!

Although I have never read a book by Jeffery Deaver before I was so excited to get the ARC to read The Never Game. I read the blurb out to my friends who all agreed that this book sounded perfect for me. I have been an avid gamer all of my life, I love going to escape rooms and crime thrillers are one of my preferred genres of books so on paper this book sounded absolutely ideal. This may also be why I’ve held it to very high standards and ultimately come away disappointed though!

To start with I don’t think Deaver is a gamer, and it was a little obvious that some of the gaming aspects of the book were under researched or that liberties had been taken to suit the plot. There is no way for example, that a game released in the 80s would have a whole level that no-one had ever been able to complete, nor that only 9 people in the world had completed the one before it. I also found it incredible unlikely that gamers would be ok with watching a current news broadcast every time they started up a game – ads are one thing but it would be a massive undertaking to do in every state, let alone international releases. I liked that a female gamer who was a grinder and used twitch was a character but as all the other gamers we meet are men living in smelly basements little is done to break stereotypes – the police of course all laugh at how stupid these people must be to waste their time on video games. I did like the introduction to the excitement and pitfalls of VR gaming though.

I thought the prospect of the murders based on a video game was really interesting but actually the crimes themselves aren’t well developed or explained. The 5 items the victims are given are completely side-lined and the perpetrator just leaves an easy escape route available for most of them so the items didn’t actually correlate to anything. I would have preferred to have seen the crime from the victim’s perspective and been introduced to more of the puzzle element of the crimes rather than the police just mentioning that 5 items had been randomly dumped with them.

I was a little confused that this is the first plotline that the author chooses to introduce his new protagonist – Colter Shaw (yes, it’s an unusual first name and we are hit around the head with that fact repeatedly). Colter is a reward hunter, a man brought up on a remote compound by survivalist parents – the flashbacks are mostly about hunting and trapping which is so completely at odds with the plot of this book. I don’t really think the target audience for the plot are the target audience for the main character and this is a really odd choice for the start of a new series.

There were a lot of red herrings in the book as well, almost too many and the actual reveal was done so fast I almost missed what was going on. I found myself just wanting the book to end – not helped by the fact that after the main plot is finished the book then carries on trying to set up a main through-line for the rest of the series that I had thoroughly lost interest in.

Overall, as a gamer I really didn’t enjoy The Never Game despite a love of crime fiction and a plot that looked like it was made for me. It’s too odd a clash between plot and character, with a drawn out story and under researched topic that fails to keep interest. Thank you to NetGalley & Harper Collins UK for a copy of the ARC in exchange for a (very) honest review.

Colter Shaw is a loner, survivalist and a man who travel across the USA in an RV finding missing persons for a reward.

The story is set in Silicon Valley, California. A 19 year old woman has gone missing, though the local police don't seem interested, so her father offers a reward, which prompts Colter to start his own investigation. Finding and releasing her turns out to be just the start of a much bigger plot revolving around a particular video game and some of the big players in the industry. Then another person goes missing. Can Colter find him before time runs out?

Brilliant read, kept me interested the whole way through and it's very well written, you can totally understand how the main character thinks with all his percentages to the risks and stuff. At the same there is a parallel story to do with a file that his father had hidden. Certainly looking forward to see what happens in future books.

I received this book from netgalley in return for a honest review.

I don't know what is it with this novel but I physically cannot make my way through it. It is incredibly boring, the plot is meh. I guess I'm just not a fan of Deaver which is unfortunate but I feel like I'm reading the script of a poor netflix original show.

Big fan of Jeffery Deaver, and this is another fast paced offering that will keep you turning the pages. Colter Shaw is an interesting character with a complicated family and back story - not your typical upbringing, but it gave him skills and a perspective on things that makes for an interesting guy to have in the divers seat for a plot like this.

The never game is the first in the series of Colter Shaw. Shaw is not your normal investigator, in fact he doesn't call himself one. He finds people for rewards, which is a very unique and intriguing start to this book. While I really enjoyed the Shaw character and look forward to seeing more from him, i just couldn't get into the plot, I wouldnt say im a massive fan of computer games so this is why I feel it didn't hold my attention as much as i hoped it would. I will be looking out for the next book as I feel this is going to be a great series with this unique character.

Brilliant twists and turns.

Colter Shaw is an investigator. He is not attached to the FBI or any police force but survives on finding lost people for the rewards which their friends and family may have put up for information. Sophie has disappeared. Her father is positive that this is totally out of character and the police don't seem to be taking her disappearance seriously, so he contacts Colter and offers him a reward. Shortly afterwards, another person disappears and turns up as a corpse, but there are similarities which should not be ignored – except the police again don't seem to want to know. And so, the scene is set for numerous twists and turns in a plot which reveals itself slowly but quite deliberately. Forget guesses and look for clues.

I will nail my colours to the mast straight away as Jeffery Deaver is one of my favourite storytellers and rarely lets me down. How he develops the characters leads to the feeling that the reader knows the main protagonists. His dialogue is always genuine and gritty. Colter is by no means a perfect specimen as he carries loads of baggage, which on occasions affects his judgement or leads him to make decisions, he sometimes later regrets. However, his is a dogged personality which will not be led astray from the path he believes to be true.

How the plot unfolds is logical and raises no eyebrows. It's steady and unsurprising until the second body is found. The police come onboard eventually although Colter has been working with LaDonna Standish of the Joint Major Crime Taskforce for some while beforehand. It's the introduction of Maddie, a computer game addict, which loses the book one star. It's all a bit too convenient, and a little contrived to suit the plot rather than it being a natural progression of the same. That notwithstanding it was a very enjoyable read and supports Deaver's reputation as one of the best international authors of his genre.

mr zorg


Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

I’m a fan of Jeffrey Deaver with good reason. His writing is a masterclass in tension and thrills and his latest offering, The Never Game, is no exception. This is fast paced and totally gripping with so many twists I didn’t know what to expect next.

Coulter Shaw investigates missing persons for reward. He’s not a detective or private eye, but as a character, he’s complex and fascinating. He was brought up off grid and has developed extraordinary perception about people and risk. He calculates probabilities with each scenario and this unusual approach allows the reader to almost experience at first hand how crimes are analysed. Bit by bit, through flashback, his backstory is divulged and that’s an interesting sub plot. This book starts with the disappearance of a young woman who’s eventually located by Shaw. But one crime scene and the objects left there lead to another and the story turns into an extraordinary hunt.

For me, Deaver just gets better and better. I can buy. Into his characters and with superb plotting, his thrillers are real page turners. There’s also a techie element with insight into social media influences and a changing world. Enjoyed every page of this and my thanks to the publisher for a review copy via Netgalley.

I really enjoyed The Never Game – it was a twisting, turning read, with several different stories and elements to it. Just when you thought you'd sussed out what was going on, something else happened! On reading the blurb, it wasn't quite what I expected but it was an interesting read.

I haven't read any of Jeffery Deaver's book for years but I liked meeting Colter Shaw and I'm intrigued to find out what happens next. (I've already bought the short story, Captivated, so I can learn more about him.)

Jeffery Deaver is one of my favourite authors and this book does not disappoint. Great characters, a good story line with lots of twists and turns. Definitely recommended.

The first thing to say is that I am a great fan of Deaver so my expectations were uber-high for a new series.

The Never Game did not disappoint, with the developed characters, wild unexpected twists, 'theme' - which is often the case in Jeffery's books, gaming industry in this case; but... but... normally I can't put his books down, but in this case it's taken me a while to finish.

I can't quite put my finger on why that was: I liked getting to know Colter, the main character; and the intrigue of his upbringing. The twists were great as always, and I love how Deaver writes.

The verdict: yes, I'll certainly will be getting the next instalment when available, but can't quite give 5 stars vs any of the Rhyme books...

Thanks to NetGalley and to Harper Collins for providing me an early ARC copy of this novel that I freely chose to review.
Jeffery Deaver does not need an introduction. He has been writing and publishing crime and mystery novels and thrillers for a very long time, and he has been collecting awards and accolades for almost as long. Despite my interest in those genres, I hadn’t read any of his books yet, partly because I always hesitate to start reading a series halfway through (yes, and I had many other books to get on with). When I saw this novel, the first in a new series, I thought this was a good chance to remedy that.
This novel has all the required elements for those who love the genre: an enticing opening (in fact, we are given a glimpse of an extremely tense scene that will come much later in the book), a hero with pretty amazing abilities, a complex past, and a few secrets (and a curious name too, Colter Shaw), a twisted case that gets more and more complicated as we go along (red herrings, false endings, action scenes, bizarre clues, plenty of suspects), useless and useful members of law enforcement (LaDonna Standish is my favourite character in the whole book, and she ticks all the boxes: African-American, lesbian, married with a child, a woman from the wrong side of the tracks, intelligent, a good professional, dismissed and bullied by her co-workers), some sort of love-interest (I didn’t care too much for that aspect of the story), an intriguing backdrop to the story (Silicon Valley and the gaming industry), another case he is working on as well that is pretty personal for the hero, and a twist/hook at the end.
If you like the description and are seeking for those elements in a story, do not hesitate. I can’t fault Deaver’s writing. He knows his stuff and he delivers in all aspects. He knows how to bait the reader’s interest, and his mastery of plot is evident. He drops hints, and when you think you have worked out who is the guilty party, or what is going on, he pulls the rug from under your feet. He is good at combining a fairly modern writing style, including plenty of action and the latest technologies, with well-tried classical elements; including the final explanation of how he worked out who the guilty party was (it is not quite a Sherlock Holmes or Poirot moment, but not that far from it). Although most of the story is told in the third-person from Shaw’s point of view, we don’t get all the information he does, for very good narrative reasons.
Any negatives? I cannot compare this book to his previous novels, and although I’ve checked the reviews, it seems that some people see this as the beginning of another winning series (it seems that the character of Colter Shaw had already been introduced in one of his short-stories), and others feel that is far from his best work. For me, one of the issues was the main character. If you had told me about this man, who was home-schooled and grew up raised in a survivalist household in the mountains of California, whose parents were both brilliant professors, but whose father (Ash) suffered from paranoia and insisted in educating his children (two boys and a girl) in the art of survival, totally isolated from the world and who ended up dead in somewhat unclear circumstances; whose mother was her husband’s psychiatrist and chose to follow his radical lifestyle and indulge (?) his paranoia, whose brother disappeared, and who now lives by working on a variety of criminal cases and collecting rewards (but seems to have other financial means) while at the same time pursues his own investigation, I would have said we were onto a winner. He is skilled, he seems to be attractive, he has commitment issues (unsurprisingly), he is somewhat obsessive and does things his own way (he loves to keep notebooks and writes his observations by hand), he is clever and witty, calm and collected under pressure, and no danger or risk faces him. Although he is not that bothered about rules and regulations, he has a sense of morality and of right and wrong (and he chooses to do the right thing). Despite all those characteristics and his back story, which should have made the character irresistible and compelling, I didn’t feel a particular connection to him. I wonder if it was the third-person narration (we also get flashbacks of episodes of his childhood, as a way to flesh out the character’s background and to build up interest and offer more clues) or something else, but although he was interesting, I felt as if I was observing the action rather than getting really engaged and worried about what might happen to him (or most of the other characters). Perhaps it read too much like a movie, and I can take or leave action flicks (I enjoy them, but they don’t engage my mind for long). Some reviewers have compared the character (negatively) to Jack Reacher, and I guess other characters will come to mind for those who love the genre. The character himself goes to pains to explain he is neither a private investigator nor a bounty hunter, but I’m not sure that makes him unique or distinctive enough. As I said, most readers love the character, and I am convinced he’ll be further developed in future novels in the series, so this should not put anybody off if the rest interests you.
I saw some readers complaining about the fact that the book was centred around the world of computer games, some because they didn’t enjoy it and found that slowed the novel down, and others because they felt there were inaccuracies (I can’t comment on that), but although I’m not a gamer, I found the descriptions interesting (not too detailed) and enjoyed the main plot line and the mystery behind the kidnappings (it is not unique but it works well). I made some general comments about the ending earlier, and I’m trying to avoid spoilers, so I won’t go into it in more detail, but I agree that there seems to be a sudden and surprising change of direction at one point (some readers have complained of a “rushed” ending), although everything is explained and I guess that is the name of the game.
In sum, personally I enjoyed the story and the plot, but at this point I am not sure I’m interested enough to keep reading the series. On the other hand, I am convinced Deaver’s reputation is well deserved, and I intend to read more of his novels in the future. (I read a very early ARC copy of the novel, so it might well be that not all I say applies to the finished product).

A truly thrilling story that delves deep into murder and mystery and Silicon Valley.  As this is the first book in the series we learn the back story to our lead and meet some surprising twists. It will be hard to fill the shoes of Deaver's previous lead characters but i have certainty Shaw will do just that as i am eagerly awaiting book 2

I have never read a book by Jeffrey Deaver so when I found out that this book was the start of a new series it seemed a good one to start with. I was not disappointed, and I now have more books to read at some point in the future.

Colter was a character I liked instantly, I could tell that he was doing his job out of a desire to save a life, not just for the reward. I enjoyed the glimpses of his childhood and the survival techniques he was taught. And I liked his no mess attitude, the bravery, his use of percentages to assess a situation and his attitude when he was proven right or wrong.

The gaming industry that is the theme in this book is one that baffles me. I don’t understand how people can sit for hours obsessed with online death or survival. And the thought of turning that online activity into reality is terrifying. I had also never given a thought to what else the gaming companies might be involved in. Something that made me more dubious about various gadgets that are in many homes.

A great start to a series, I will be looking forward to reading more about Colter in the future.

A new lead character in a thrilling topical tale with video games,fake news and fiendish modes of murder all combined in this thrilling ride. The hero's back history is cleverly intertwined to explain his almost superhero powers as the investigation throws up suspects and red herrings that are Mr Deaver's forte as seen in the Lincoln Rhyme series but this is definitely different enough to warrant more as the ending here leaves another episode to be told. Excellent!

This is catnip for Jack Reacher fans, a clever set up for limitless sequels, but for me it doesn’t really add anything to the genre. At least Lee Child’s inexplicably sexy and morose creation has a reason to be a lone wolf; Colter Shaw just seems to be wasting his skill set by interfering in existing police investigations for free. Yes he’s good, but why doesn’t he just become a registered PI instead of constantly having to explain his bizarre and randomly-paid hobby to sceptical cops?
Look, I finished it; it wasn’t at all poorly written and seems to fulfil its promise to supply a taciturn, chisel-jawed chick-magnet with a decade’s worth of murder-flavoured escapades. So if you like that, you don’t be disappointed :)

This is the second book about Colter Shaw. As it was an advanced copy, I did find it difficult to read due to spelling mistakes and words joined together.
It was mainly set in the gaming industry and whilst being an interesting book about Shaw trying to find people who have been kidnapped, I found it hard to follow as I am not a gamer.
Thanks to Netgalley for an Arc.