Before I start this review, I have a confession to make. This is the first book by Jeffrey Deaver I have read. Although it is a name I am familiar with, I have never got round to reading one of his books before and I’m pleased I finally have.

The Never Game is an intriguing start to a new series featuring Colter Shaw, an investigator with a bit of a difference. I’ve read a few novels featuring private investigators, but this is one which felt really fresh to me. There is an element of mystery about Colter, and I’m very interested to find out more about him in future books.

Colter is hired by the father of a missing woman who is desperate for news of her; Colter takes on the case with the promise of a reward as payment. But as his own investigation into the woman’s disappearance deepens, he realises that there is something much darker going on behind the scenes. And then an online blogger and a pregnant woman go missing. Is there something that connects these three cases?

In his latest book, Jeffery Deaver taps into the online gaming world, which has become hugely popular in recent years, earning companies billions of dollars in revenue each year. It’s a staggering amount of money. One game that particularly interests Colter during his investigations is an immersive game, and it plants a terrifying thought into his head as he tries to work out why people have been going missing and find who is targeting them. I’ve often thought about how certain games can have a psychological effect on people, particularly with games such as Call of Duty, and this is what Jeffery Deaver also explores here. It is a very scary thought to think about.

I turned the pages of this book really fast. I was immediately gripped by the opening; I could sense the danger and the urgency in this scene right away. Jeffrey Deaver’s writing pulls you into the story without any effort, and you can easily see that this is a writer who is very experienced at his craft. I really liked Colter, he comes from an interesting background, and I particularly found his family story intriguing which is what I think this series will run with as there are lots of interesting aspects to this part of the plot. Colter uses different methods to most investigators when he is searching for the missing girl. He has his own set of unique tracking methods which have been unique to him since he was very young.

This is a series that I am definitely interested in following. If you are new to Jeffrey Deaver as well, then this is the perfect time to start reading his books. It’s such a pacy read and with totally immersive writing; it’s exciting and a thoroughly enjoyable book. Recommended.

Our restless survivalist-background protagonist, Colter Shaw, responds to offers of rewards for finding missing people though he’s no money-grabber per se but a man of sensitivity with a high moral code – and he won’t take the offered reward unless he can track down a living person for the seeker.

In this case, he is tasked with finding a missing woman by her father, and soon finds himself immersed in the world of virtual-reality gaming as not just the first woman but other victims start popping up and it seems someone is devising his own ‘game’ for his or her victims. As the plot thickens, Shaw himself finds himself being hunted and in danger and the tension builds, setting us up beautifully for the next in the series.

I’m not remotely tech-y or interested in gaming, but there was just enough here to generate interest for a non-tech like me; thankfully the author keeps the plot in mind and gives just enough information to capture our interest, rather than getting carried away with trying to impress the audience with his tech knowledge, as is unfortunately sometimes the case with ‘tech-based’ novels.

Only got 4 stars rather than 5 'cause I'm very very sparing with my 5s ... less than 10 on my whole-life list. Wish there was a 4½ rating! Excellent plot, superb tension and characters you can invest in – what more could you ask for? A thumping read.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book. I had read the short story introduction to this new character Colter Shaw and enjoyed that immensely and was not disappointed on this the full length story relating to Colter. Colter continues to seek out rewards from those seeking help in order to find lost loved ones. All the people he is trying to find before they are murdered or left to die alone are linked in some way and along the way a few red herrings are thrown in. The book does concern computer games but you not need to know anything about them and the descriptions help you to understand without any prior knowledge. I am so glad I kept this book to read on my holiday as I read this in one day, by the pool. The book is compulsive reading and I enjoyed this immensely and honestly did not want the book to end however it is very nicely set up at the end for a sequel and I for one cannot wait.

My thanks to HarperCollins U.K. for an eARC via NetGalley of Jeffrey Deaver’s latest ‘The Never Game’ in exchange for an honest review.

When 19-year old Sophie goes missing, the police seem uninterested and so her distraught father offers a reward. Enter Colter Shaw. Raised in the wilderness by survivalist parents, Shaw is an expert tracker with a keen forensic mind who locates missing persons.

This is the first novel in a new series featuring enigmatic investigator Colter Shaw. I have previously read a few books by Deaver and know that he writes well plotted thrillers and so was fairly confident this would prove a good fit for my tastes.

It was interesting how gaming was utilised in the story though like Shaw I have very little experience of it and so appreciated the exposition.

I found Colter Shaw a very appealing protagonist and liked the way his backstory was slowly revealed. I plan to keep an eye out for future books in this series and certainly feel that ‘The Never Game’ will please his existing readers and attract new ones.

The Never Game introduces Mr Deaver's exciting new series featuring the wonderfully mysterious Colter Shaw, and once again he has penned an intense, absorbing an enthralling page-turner highlighting that he is indeed still ahead of the game. The premise very much reminded me of the horror film Saw and is equally as disturbing with a killer that certainly wouldn't be out of place in the movie. Dark, disturbing and very troublesome, Deaver crafts a fast-paced runaway train of a novel with thrills and chills aplenty. Colter is a fascinating and original protagonist as proved by the background information revealed about him here, and I can't wait to learn more about this enigmatic character.

Interestingly and rather uniquely Colter effectively uses percentage play to guide himself and the police, and with dogged hard work, Shaw can usually unravel the mystery surrounding his cases. There are twists and surprises in abundance, and I appreciated that although I couldn't guess most of them they made sense when looking back and mulling over the clues that were there retrospectively. This adds an element of authenticity to the story. The part of the plot that explores video gaming has been extensively and meticulously researched; all of these aspects made this a quick, thoroughly enjoyable read. I look forward to many more adventures with Mr Shaw. Many thanks to HarperCollins for an ARC.

With thanks to Pigeonhole, Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC and the enjoyment of reading an excellent novel.
Jeffery Deaver is a storyteller in the masterclass category of storytelling. The words just leap off the page and are an engrossing read, whilst the story is complex and about gamers, kidnappers and murderers, plus the odd conspiracy theory thrown in it weaves and comes together at the end. Then you are left with another conundrum, what will Colt do next?
Highly recommended.

I feel I'm unable to review this book as the electronic copy I received was full of typos. Whilst I appreciate it is an uncorrected proof I expect words to be separated and paragraphs to begin on a separate line. This spoilt my experience of this book which I did not finish. I will buy a print copy when the book is published.

Having been a long term fan of Jeffrey Deaver and his Lincoln Rhyme series I was delighted to see the start of a new series with a new protagonist.
Colter Shaw is a great new character as someone earns reward money for a living. In this story her is tracing a missing girl for her father.
His backstory of growing up in a survivalist family is heavily referenced in the book and how he uses this in his work. I love the way Shaw works out probabilities for each situation and uses this in his investigation.
As someone who is not a Computer Game fan I did struggle with this part of the story and found the middle section a bit of a struggle although I am sure gamers will love it..
I am glad I continued with the book as I believe that this series can only improve as the main character develops..
Can't wait for the next story.

A student is missing in Silicon Valley. Shaw decides to help solve the problem when he hears of the reward offered. Little does he know a second student will turn up missing - but this time the victim is found dead. What's the connection to a video game called The Never? Is a murderer re-enacting the game in real life? That's what Shaw intends to find out. An interesting first story in a new series. It gives Shaw's background and how he seems to have endless supplies of money. I liked the main character, even though Shaw was similar to other protagonists in previous books I've read. As a thriller, it fitted the bill although I would have liked to have had a better plot and less information about video games. The whole book needed to be tighter.

This is the first in a new series by Jeffery Deaver and a very promising start. Colter Shaw finds missing people in return for reward money, a change from the typical bounty hunter and private investigator stories. Lots of attention to detail and information on Shaw's background, a well developed character. Plenty action and twists make this a very promising new series. I would recommend this book. Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC. Reviews on Goodreads, Amazon and Facebook.

A stimulating and spellbinding read - first in a brand new series - from international best-selling author of the Lincoln Rhyme books and many more.

When his daughter suddenly disappears, her father knows that she hasn't just run away. With the authorities not taking him seriously, he puts up a reward. Enter Colter Shaw, a  man who searches for missing people where there is monetary gain to be made. There are so many things he is not, but his skills are not in question; but this isn't a novel about one missing person. It's about so much more.

Colter Shaw is a protagonist like no other I've come across; his upbringing was, to say the least, unconventional. Shaw is a multi-faceted character, and although I feel as if I know him better than when I opened at the first page, I definitely get the impression that there is so much more to come. This is a superbly crafted book! A phenomenal, unpredictable read this is full of twist and turns, enigmas and revelations. I LOVED it! This is going to be a must-not miss series, and I'll be watching out for the second one. Utterly superb! It's not often I find myself absorbed in a story to the exclusion of everything else, but that is exactly what happened here - I've even consumed less coffee! Sometimes, five stars are just not enough, but that's the very best I can offer, and this one has earned each and every one of them, several times over.

My thanks to publisher Harper Collins for my copy via NetGalley. All opinions given here are entirely my own.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is the first novel in Deaver's new series featuring Colter Shaw.
I really enjoyed this novel - it has all the usual Deaver twists and turns which I can never guess. I think I just didn't love it because of the new protagonist and because we don't really know him properly. Reading a Lincoln Rhyme novel is like catching up with an old friend. But I'm sure after a few outings for Shaw, I'll start loving this series too.

I'm a bit torn about this book in some ways, as it tells a really great story, has some unexpected twists and turns, a satisfying ending that left me wanting more, but as an avid gamer, it misses some beats in depicting the gaming world and culture in general.

However, I was easily able to overlook this, as a cast of memorable characters and a well constructed plot meant that I read through this pretty quickly, and was not able to figure out the 'bad guys' before the reveal. The beauty of a twist reveal like this is when it comes as a complete shock, but fits perfectly logically in the context of everything that has come before it.

I'm intrigued to know what happens next with the overarching plot concerning the central character, and would recommend this to anyone who likes a well written thriller. Just leave any over zealous gaming content critiques at home, and enjoy the novel for what it presents.

Jeffery Deaver introduces a new character and a new series in this book. Colter Shaw is a "people hunter" with a conscience. His character is complex and mysterious. We are given some insight into his background as a child of academics who were survivalists.. Colter uses percentages to work out his next steps and I found this fascinating.
I have only two criticisms of this book:
It is partly set in the world of "gamers" - this was interesting but at times I found it too technical and skipped those parts
The typos/grammar in quite a lot of the book was irritating e.g. boy'd
However, I did enjoy it and would recommend it and will look out for the next in the series.

‘Love, Colter Shaw had learned, could be an endlessly refillable prescription of madness’

The Never Game is the first novel in new Colter Shaw series by award-winning author Jeffery Deaver. I must admit, that this was my first book from this author, although I watched the Bone Collector movie based on his book. I was intrigued by the book’s description. The action is based in Silicon Valley, where mysterious criminal put his victims into survival scenarios based on some video game. As a gaming nerd I was intrigued right away!
Colter Shaw is not a policeman nor a private detective, but he does help police or civilians track down people for rewards. And he is very good in his job. Raised by paranoid father, he got a perfect training for survival in wilderness, tracking and handling weapons. He is also very good in problem solving. Before tackling a case, he gathers as much information as he can and then considers all possible scenarios assigning them percentage of probability.
When he agrees to help desperate father to find his daughter, he has no idea how complicated the case will get. It quickly turns out, that kidnapper is extremely well organized and elusive. To track him down Colter will have to learn more about video game business, their products and gamers.
I really enjoyed reading this book. The intrigue was not easy to solve and characters where struggling a lot before their finally found the person responsible for all the crimes. There were also some twists and turns along the way. Author has done extensive research about video games and their history. At the end of the book he listed all the books he used for references and it is a lot! I liked all those little games trivia, because for me the topic is interesting, but I’m not sure if everyone will appreciate it.
I also liked Shaw himself. He is very rational, composed and very resourceful person. He’s not only a mercenary for hire. He only takes the cases that interest him, and mostly because of his desire to help unfortunate and helpless victims. He is also smart and not afraid of taking risks. There is also a bigger story here, connected with some Shaw’s family secrets, but we don’t learn much about it in this book, although it is clearly said it will be continuing in sequels.
I don’t read a lot of mystery and thrillers books, but I enjoyed reading them occasionally. The Never Game is a good book to spend few evenings with. Especially gamers will find it very appealing. I’m not sure yet what case Colter Shaw will pursue in next books, but I think I’ll gladly meet him again.

I've been a huge fan of Deaver’s work over the years, I like that he develops slightly off-the-wall baddies and as a result his stories are often quite quirky. There are always plenty of twists too, enough to prevent me from guessing the ending at any rate (OK, that's actually not too hard as I virtually never work out an ending). Most recently, his Lincoln Rhyme series has held me captive, but I've avoided the last couple of books as I was beginning to tire of the format. So I was delighted to see that with this book he’s introduced a new hunter of unsubs, a fresh solver of crimes. Colter Shaw looks for opportunities to earn rewards offered for missing persons and the like. He's not a registered PI but he operates along similar lines and uses a small back-up team to help him track down such opportunities and to provide additional information as his investigations progress.

A student has gone missing in Silicon Valley and her father is offering up a $10,000 reward – right up Colter’s street. And as he gets into the detail of what he suspects is a kidnapping he notices that developments seem to be tracking events featured in a video game. Soon Colter finds himself embroiled in intrigue involving the multi-billion dollar gaming industry… and now a second case has raised its head.

I quickly grew to enjoy spending time with Deaver’s new front man: he’s clever (of course), has a dry wit and an interesting background, involving a troubled brother and a survivalist father who thought him many of the skills he now deploys. Towards the end of this book the author sets the scene for book two - I'm hooked already, line me up for the second instalment. I'm not quite wowed enough to award this one five stars – a slow section in the middle of the book being the culprit - but it's an easy four star offering and I have a feeling that I’ll be tuning in to tales featuring Colter Shaw for some time to come.

A New Beginning: The Never Game by Jeffrey Deaver
Many thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read a copy of this novel in advance.

Arthur Conan Doyle once grew so sick of writing about Sherlock Holmes that he killed him off. The greatest detective in the world accosted his arch enemy Prof Moriarty literally on a cliff edge overhanging Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland and after a furious tussle they both apparently fell to their deaths.

Happily, insofar as we know, Lincoln Rhyme is still alive and well in his New York apartment overlooking Central Park. But his author has decamped from East Coast to West and is focusing on a new character. This has always been a tough gig. Deaver has attempted this before with the character of Kathryn Dance, an expert in kinesics, the study of human movement and gestures, Kathryn never really worked for me.

Does Colter Shaw, the protagonist of The Never Game? Colter is one of the three children of a survivalist family headed by two former university professors brought up and home-schooled in an isolated estate in the Californian wilderness. He is an expert tracker and he makes his living by collecting rewards for finding disappeared people. We are soon told that he is not to be confused with a bounty hunter. The apparent kidnapping of a young female student following an argument with her father sets Colter up against a criminal mastermind of his own. Soon dubbed "The Gamer" this miscreant seems to be recreating with his victims the scenarios involved in an old survivalist-type game where the player is left in a hostile location with a certain set of objects as his/her only means of escape. Set exclusively in California, the plot has all the twists and turns you have come to expect from Deaver.

Unfortunately, I have to say I found Colter unconvincing and unlovable.Home-schooled almost in isolation in the wilderness yet he's completely au fait with modern gadgetry? Ah, but his parents were professors! He knows a massive amount about culture and psychology? Well, they had a library, you see... Sorry Jeff but I ain't buying.

As for his personality... Well... Um... He doesn't really have much of one. At first I thought one of the reveals would be that Colter is autistic he was so much of a blank slate, well it wasn't. Damn. Lincoln may be in a wheelchair but he oozes personality, I especially like his occasional musings on "crips" as he calls himself, his disability, his arrogance and his attempts to get at the whiskey. Entirely absent in Colter.

Don't get me wrong, Deaver is a good writer, the twists and turns of the story made this novel go down quick but I couldn't help missing Lincoln or any other personality come to that. There is only one thing that might be the hook that'll make me pick up the next Colter Shaw book, the family mystery of who killed his father and why.

4.5 stars.
I had a brief introduction to Deaver's newest character, Colter Shaw, in his short debut Captivated. He's a reward hunter, which is basically what it says on the tin. He travels the country helping both Police and private citizens solve crimes when they are struggling, or not being heard. In this, his first proper outing, his interest is piqued when he hears that a father is offering money to find his missing daughter. The police appearing to have no interest in the case. But what starts out as a missing person soon develops into high intrigue as more people vanish and he is drawn into the expanding, and very lucrative, field of gaming. But that's not all, as Shaw has his own backstory, his own personal investigation going on and the lines between that and the case he is on start to blur to the extent that he isn't sure who is gunning for him in return...
Part of this book is taken up with a lot of background into Shaw's past. His childhood growing up with a survivalist father in a remote setting. Although necessary for character background, development and to explain why and how he does what he does now, I did find some of it distracting and kept forgetting where we were in the main story a bit. One of the things I did like from his past, his upbringing, was the way he allocates percentages to scenarios which did redress the balance somewhat along the way.
As you would expect from Deaver, there are twists and turn aplenty, all delivered with aplomb. As well as an intricate, interconnected plot that, at times, left me breathless. I'm not a gamer but Deaver has obviously done his research into this world and presents his findings in an interesting and easy to follow way. And the ending, when it came, was wholly satisfying, albeit it with some scope for future expansion.
Shaw is complex and, as such, is an extremely interesting character. Even with what we learn from this book, it's obvious that there is much more to learn about him. At times it felt like we were only just scratching the surface of the man himself and I for one can't wait to reconnect with him and delve further. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

This was a great step up from the last book I read from this author, but still no where near his best. I know he can produce phenomenal stories.. this isn’t one of them. Though the last quarter of the book was gripping, exciting and in a way, fun.

I liked Colter Shaw, but I didn’t like the fact that he never smiled, he was cold as hell (when he should be a bit friendlier to certain people) and little dense. Maddie’s character though, urgh, what a drab. I didn’t like her personality and she was way too strong.
But Standish made a fabulous character. Absolutely adored her work ethics and her personality. She was the best character throughout.

The storyline was a good one, though this author likes to jump from scene to scene with absolutely no warning and us readers are let confused. Well, I was. Maybe a break in between or something. Because I had to turn back so far to figure out what the hell was going on.

Another thing that let this book down dramatically is how they figured it was that person who was doing all the kidnappings. There was no mention of how Shaw came to the conclusion. Not really anyway and that was a mega let down. A lot of it didn’t make sense at the end. But, alas, the drama and dynamics made up for it.

The ending was great though I’m still completely lost as to why it was added because it just made Shaw all that more complicated. It would have ended well without the winnebago ending.

I’d like to continue with this series in the future, and hope the author takes in some of things I’ve pointed out.

I catergorise Jeffery Deaver's books into two sets; the Lincolm Rhyme thrillers and the thrillers where he focuses on a different character who has some sort of interesting talent or unique schtick which makes them interesting.

This book is one of the latter category.

Colter Shaw is a survivalist and private investigator (well, not exactly, but he performs the same role as a PI) whose schtick is that he assigns percentages to the odds of various risks or facts being true, and also has incredibly neat handwriting.

I liked Shaw as a character, and his survival-related activities were interesting, as was his past and his relationships. The drip-feed of facts about him through the novel was enjoyable and I found myself wanting to know more about him and his family.

The action of the novel was pretty enjoyable though the Deaver twist formula was present and accounted for. When everything is a twist, nothing really is; because we're expecting the most obvious event to be subverted, it's never surprising when it is.

I really got the impression that Deaver doesn't have direct experience of the video games world, and his portrayal of various events and facts in that space didn't read as very authentic. There were a few factual inaccuracies and blunders in the video games space and I felt that this element of the book really let it down overall.

Still, once again we have an interesting character and a gripping read here, and I'll be sure to read the next Colter Shaw book when it's released!