Colter Shaw, not a Private Investigator, not a bounty hunter, but a restless man that has money and connections from who knows where and he uses those to his advantage to go after rewards offered for finding missing persons or wanted criminals etc...
I really enjoyed this book, the style of writing is easy to read, offering the reader a good balance between details and background narrative.
The characters, and in particular the main character are believable and encourages the reader to become invested in them and what happens to them.
The way the story uses modern concerns of online presence and privacy is very good and the links to the online gaming world makes the story feel very current.
In short, I was hooked from the beginning, and my only frustration is that I was left wanting more at the end! I’m looking forward to the next book.

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this one

well not being a gamer i did struggle with this one quite a bit...but colter being the man that he is, interested me enough to keep reading...his backstory of living off the land and a father that made him aware of things happening around the world and keeping off the grid..is interesting, survival skills and no internet made for learning some very interesting skills

and thats what keep colter busy by being a finder of people,he never claims the reward if the person ends up dead

but its the backstory that i find interesting and the hints at the end make you want to read the next in this series...

so this could be another winning series by jeffrey deaver but will it overtake his other series we will have to wait and see

This is the first book in a new series, introducing Colter Shaw. I think this book shows promise for the rest of the series as I did find myself interested in Colter as a character but I struggled with getting into this one. I think the problem was a lot of this book went over my head slightly. This plotline revolves heavily around video games which I don't personally play or have any real interest in.

There were some subplots for Colters character though that I did find myself quite curious about so I may end up reading on in the series. I think this one may have just been a fluke for me.

As a first time reader of this author I did not know what to expect. The story was well written but didn't catch my attention like I thought it would.

I've been a fan of Jeffery Deaver's novels for many years and this novel with a new MC does not disappoint. Colter Shaw has an interesting back story which is woven through the novel so readers can get to know him. The plot line for this first in the series is based on gaming and is very cleverly worked through, with a few red herrings to keep readers guessing. I'm hooked and very much looking forward to the next in the series.

My first book by this author and I enjoyed it. A likeable main character and an interesting plot although it’s not what you expect in the end and I found it a little disappointing.
My thanks to Netgalley, the publishers and the author for this copy.

Thank you for supplying a preview copy of this book. Unfortunately the number of spelling mistakes/ words joined together/ grammatical errors made it too difficult to read and I could not get very far into the story.

Promising first book in a new series. Interesting characters & plenty twists I look forward to reading more in this series

Introducing Colter Shaw, a new character from the pen of Jeffrey Deaver in an eminently readable thriller. Colter is a ‘reward seeker’; he finds missing persons in exchange for a reward offered. This may sound a little mercenary but Colter is actually an honourable person.

The plot centres on the world of video gaming, Silicon Valley and an initial kidnapping. It soon becomes clear that someone is acting out the escape challenges of a particular video game, The Whispering Man, where the player is left with a set of items that should enable him or her to ‘escape the room’. More kidnappings follow and it is up to Colter, with the assistance of female cop, Detective Standish, to work out the kidnapper’s next move.

Colter is an engaging character with his own interesting backstory, more of which, I suspect, we will uncover in book two. The plot is clever and the narrative is well-written and pacy enough to keep the pages turning. If you enjoyed the Lincoln Rhyme novels by the same author, this will probably be for you.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley for the chance to read this book before publication. I love Jeffrey Deaver novels.....this one has a new main character Colter Shaw who I am sure will be featuring in a whole new series of adventures in the future. A bit of a slow burner but it got there in the end and this is left open for the next novel.
As a small aside Colter writes with a fountain pen.....this reminder has meant that I have had to dig out my old pens and press them into use again !!!

The first in the new Colter Shaw series. Great read , interesting character and a great premise. Colter is a reward collector so not your normal lead character. Usual Jeffery Deaver clever plot, when you think it’s all over it’s not and you’ve been led down a blind alley to the culprit who is of course not who you thought they were. I felt myself making comparisons to Lee Child’s Jack Reacher character as Colter is a bit of a loner but there’s a huge backstory there just waiting come out
Suffice to say I’ve opened a new collection in my Kindle library for this, as one does with all good series that you just know you will be downloading on publication day. I read Captivated the novella introducing Colter prior to reading this and knew I was in for a treat

My review is on the book and the story even though it was hard going with the mistakes in it I wanted to carry on.
Love the new characters in this series and the story was interesting not the normal style for JD but was enjoyed and I will read more to see where we go with it. I want to know about Shaw family and his relationships and see if any of the characters pop up again.
Would recommend this book once it's been edited and mistakes taken out the k you NetGalley author and publisher for my arc copy x

This is certainly a book with a contemporary context. The plot is based on video games and a criminal focussed on acting out the games in real life. At times it can be very technical and heavily descriptive. The lead investigator gets part of his income from seeking rewards for finding missing persons. He is a well constructed character adding depth to the story. Periodically we get glimpses of his past life,particularly the influence of his father in making him the person he is. It is unlikely in real life that the police would have put up with his involvement but this is far from being reality. The story also goes back and forward from time to time. The book is well written but it's technical context will not suit all readers.

We are introduced to Colter Shaw, a man with a strange survivalist upbringing having been raised in a huge forested and mountainous compound (think: National park type size!) with his brother and sister by his ex-academic parents who quit their professional world and ‘retired’ to live in the wilderness.
Shaw earns his living by tracing lost/missing people, then claiming the reward; but he is no ‘bounty hunter’. He doesn’t go for the highest paying job – the emotional cost is more important to him. He sometimes doesn’t even take the reward! He’s a driven man: determination, survival and strong sense of moral justice instilled by his father.

This tale is set in Silicon Valley – you learn a lot about gaming, the gaming community – the sheer numbers involved worldwide and the sums of money invested and generated therein. Also how people live in order to have highly regarded jobs in that area. And the business competitiveness in that field, as high as in politics.
People start being kidnapped – they are in strange locations with clues, mirroring a game. But this is no straightforward copy. Twists, turns, false starts, lies, clues and plants are everywhere.

Shaw’s personal life is also intriguing, both in his current relationships and his past. There is a family mystery that underlies everything he has been brought up to believe in – Where is his reclusive older brother who he has not seen for 15 years?

Some of the American speech had me a bit flummoxed at first (I’m UK, lol), but I stuck at it and I’m glad I did. Not my usual type of read – but I’m convinced, and await the next instalment for more answers and thrills.

This story completes the introduction of a new series character for Deaver called Colter Shaw. He first appeared in the short-story 'Captivated' and this new novel expands on the character, pitching him against a deadly, high-tech’ foe.

Shaw is a bit like a bounty-hunter except that he doesn’t like to call himself that, and he has his own set of noble ethics. To make a living he helps find missing persons for people offering a reward for the task, calling his current client the “Offeror”. By the time of this story Shaw has been plying his trade for ten years and is an old hand at it.

With his small team of back-office associates - neighbours in his Florida home town and a Private Investigator - Shaw travels where he needs to in search of clues. The team keep his back research-wise and by the miracle of modern technology ensure he’s updated when necessary.

As the book opens we find Shaw struggling to rescue a pregnant lady from a sinking boat in freezing temperatures. The task seems too much, threatening to overwhelm him and as the situation gradually worsens we flash back a few days to the events leading up to the deadly drama.

This is a well-written and entertaining mix of adventure and detective work, with Shaw and his new acquaintances struggling to stop a serial-kidnapper and murderer from striking again, all set against a backdrop of the highest of technology smack in the middle of the world’s most tech-savvy place - Silicon Valley.

A major clue to finding out who is behind a series of kidnaps is a popular video game. Deaver has obviously done a lot of research in and around the computer games industry. His characters are lively and nicely formed, some more deeply than others. All are troubled in one way or another. There’s a back-story too about Shaw’s upbringing and his family’s paranoid, survivalist training. There are mysteries buried deep there and in a parallel plot line he is struggling to make sense of his eccentric father’s death, hoping against hope his suspicions aren’t true.

To round out the character there’s some love interest here too but it doesn’t amount to much, though it does add more character development and a new set of possibilities for future collaboration.

As the investigation into who the kidnapper is moves towards its conclusion, Shaw’s past comes back to bite him in an unexpected but well thought-out twist, tying-up an earlier part of the plot which by that time we’ve almost forgotten about. A classic “Ah-ha!” moment of realisation.

It’s a double-ending type of story that keeps coming back until the final page and naturally points towards the prospect of another instalment with this enjoyable and dynamic, if slightly dour character.

Colter Shaw is in the same loner-hero mould we’ve come to know well in recent American thrillers, but in fairness to Deaver his creation is no carbon-copy and is his own, fully explored character with a lot of mileage yet to be extracted from his unusual upbringing.

Readers new to Deaver but familiar with American thrillers will certainly enjoy his new creation. Those who have read the author before will appreciate his new direction and character. Those who have done neither will find this a great introduction to a renowned-for-quality, best-selling author,

This is a Recommended read. One I sped through, enjoying the descriptive prose which made for very easy reading.

This was an ok read. It grabbed me slowly. I was expecting wam bam and to be utterly gripped within the first few pages as other JD books have grabbed me by just reading the back cover but not so. It was a welcome addition to my bookshelf however and I look forward to seeing how this series develops in future books.

Thank you to Netgalley and the author and publishers for the opportunity to read this book in advance of publication in return for an honest review.

I haven’t read a Jeffrey Denver book for quite a while - I read all his early ones - and he hasn’t lost his touch. I’m reasonably computer literate, but I’m not a gamer, however I could keep up with most of the gaming parts and if I got a bit lost, I still got the gist of it.. The book lost a star for me because I had to skip over some of the gaming parts. I really liked his leading character, Colter Shaw, who searches for missing people when rewards are offered. This sounds a bit mercenary but it really isn’t, he’s a great character and puts everything into finding people whom the police haven’t managed to. Colter was brought up by survivalists and his father taught him everything he needed to know about survival and tracking in the wilderness, these skills are what makes him so successful at what he does.
His first case in this book is a young woman called Sophie, whose father is beside himself over her disappearance, and the police aren’t taking it very seriously, Sophie is alive, but locked in a room she can’t get out of. Two more people go missing within days of each other and Sophie but there are no connections between the three of them.
Sophie wakes to find herself in a locked room with several things that she can use to escape - if she can work out what to use these things for..
The suspense gets hold of you and doesn’t let go - you really want to reach the end of the book to find out who or what is behind these disappearances, but you don’t want to reach the end as you don’t want to let go of Colter and the allies he finds in the police force who are also characters you’ll like.
I’m now going to go back and read the Jeffrey Deaver books that I’ve missed.

Sadly the ARC of this book is so badly formatted it is a chore to read it. I think if the book had grabbed me in I could have ploughed through, decoding words that were joined together. But at a quarter of the way through, I’m still yet to get into the story, or characters so it’s a no from me. Which is a shame, because I’ve enjoyed many Jeffrey Deaver books in the past.

I found this book almost unreadable because of the formatting and grammatical and spelling errors. Is it a first draft? Im surprised an author of this calibre would release this version.

A pager turner with good characters, well-written characters, and most importantly an interesting, solid plot. I'm not a very avid gamer but I do play certain games and I enjoyed the descriptions and the details. I liked Colter Shaw, who is a glorified bounty hunter, but unlike bounty hunters doesn't hunt criminals but tries to collect rewards by finding missing people. I enjoyed this book and I look forward to the next book in the series, A big thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for giving me this book in exchange of my hones review.