Jeffery Deaver certainly illustrates his credentials as a experienced, skilled and exciting thriller writer with this, the third full length outing for the restless reward seeker, Colter Shaw. This book ties the threads of the death of Shaw's father, Ashton, who along with his academic mother, Mary Dove, had raised him, his older brother, Russell, and sister, Dorian, as expert survivalists at their isolated compound. After previous events, it is now clear that Ashton was murdered by the villainous BlackBridge Corporate Solutions and its CEO Ian Helms, an organisation that Ashton and others had tried to bring down to little avail. BlackBridge has aided clients, with their amoral and deadly Urban Improvement Plan (UIP), by flooding areas with drugs so that the likes of developers could purchase land and buildings dirt cheap and facilitate gerrymandering by narcotics for political clients.

Shaw is in San Francisco at his father's safe house in Alvarez, a base for him as he seeks retribution for Ashton by taking up the fight against BlackBridge as he searches for a courier bag of evidence hidden by the murdered would be whistleblower, Amos Gahl. Two of BlackBridge's operatives, Ebbit Droon and the older Irena Braxton, have Shaw in their sights, and in one particularly tight corner, Shaw is rescued by a familiar, if estranged figure from tthe past. This is an ally that is to prove invaluable time and time again, against BlackBridge and in the race against time to find an entire family set to be ruthlessly wiped out, unfortunately the only clue they have are the initials SP, information found in a note in the pocket of a dead bad guy. Despite having more than enough on his plate, including the fate of the country, Shaw wouldn't be Shaw if he wasn't looking for a missing person, and here it is Tessy, the missing daughter of poor single mother, Maria Vasquez.

With the underlying story of the mystery of Shaw's father, Ashton, tied up and the important family reconciliation that materialises, I am wondering if Deaver intended this to be a trilogy and that this is the last in the series. I am hoping not, as I think in Shaw he has a winning protagonist with his analytical approach, using the probability technique to guide how he moves forward. This is a wonderfully enthralling and entertaining fast paced thriller, jam packed with suspense and twists, that will appeal to many crime and thriller readers. Familiar characters return, including Victoria Lesston, who has restless qualities that mirror Shaw, his efficient private investigator, Charlotte 'Mack' McKenzie and the ex-FBI Tom Pepper, Shaw's rock climbing friend. Highly Recommended. Many thanks to HarperCollins for an ARC.

The Final Twist is the third instalment in the Colter Shaw Thriller series, set in San Francisco, California. Colter Shaw is a professional reward-seeker who finds people “good ones and bad, those lost because of fate and circumstances and those lost because they chose to be lost.” Just hours after the harrowing events of The Never Game and The Goodbye Man, Colter Shaw finds himself in San Francisco at a storage safe house, where he has taken on the mission his father, Ashton, began years ago before his untimely death: finding a missing courier bag containing evidence that will bring down a corporate espionage firm responsible for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of deaths. The damning information would be like hitting the payload and would almost guarantee the destruction of BlackBridge Corporate Solutions. A former researcher at the firm, the late Amos Gahl, was the one risking his life to whistleblow by smuggling information out of the nefarious business and Colter has the assistance of his estranged brother Russell Shaw. Russell has a team of his own and wants to help bring down a firm that has acted with complete impunity up until now.

Following the enigmatic clues his father left behind, Colter plays cat and mouse with the company's sadistic enforcers, as he speeds from one gritty neighbourhood in the City by the Bay to another. But there are not just the enforcers to contend with; there is CEO and founder of BlackBridge, Ian Helms, and his ruthless fixer, Ebbitt Droon as well as Irene Braxton, a grandmother with a background in murder. Suddenly, the job takes on a frightening urgency and its success will hinge on the Colter brothers pulling the wool over the firm’s eyes for long enough to find their treasure: Only by finding the courier bag containing the mysterious Endgame Sanction of 1906 can he expose the company and stop the murder of an entire family slated to die in forty-eight hours, as confirmed by a note discovered on the dead body of a bad guy; the kill order inconveniently refers to those living on borrowed time only as ”SP” and ”SP’s” whole family unit. With the help of an unexpected figure from his past, and with the enforcers closing the net, Shaw narrows in on the truth--and learns that the courier bag contains something unexpected: a secret that could only be described as catastrophic.

With evil machinations such as flooding selected neighbourhoods with drugs to drive down the price of real estate, BlackBridge couldn't care less about those who may suffer as a result. Time after time there are near misses, will they manage to decimate this company once and for all? This is a riveting, compulsive and complex thriller filled with dozens of twists and reversals, misleading clues/misdirection, red herrings, double-fakes and dizzying baits-and-switches and is a nonstop race against time to save the family and to keep the devastating secret Shaw has uncovered from falling into the wrong hands. Told solely from Colter’s perspective making it much more immersive, the conspiracy from previous instalments continues with crisp, tense action scenes, intrigue, complications, red hot danger, mystery, surprises and deceptions aplenty. An engrossing and cleverly woven thriller that is both devilish and devious with an interesting, well-developed hero at its heart. Exciting, highly entertaining and thoroughly recommended escapism.

The Final Twist is the latest instalment in Jeffery Deaver's Colter Shaw series and sees him continuing his efforts take down the sinister and secretive Blackridge company, the people he believes are responsible for the death of his Dad and the disappearance of his Brother. When he died Shaw's father was investigating Blackridge and his research notes lead Shaw on a deadly treasure hunt.
Shaw is like a non-violent Jack Reacher,he has the same analytical brain that enables him to get an overview of a tricky situation almost instantly but for him violence is a last resort.
Shaw's hunt,hotly pursued by Blackridge's goons, gets him into all kinds of perilous situations that escalate when he discovers that his personal mission also has massive ramifications for the whole of America.

This is a massively entertaining book,I read it in one hit as a day of my life passed by. It can be read as a standalone but I'd strongly recommend that if you haven't done so you read the first 2 books in the series first. There's a bit of a political thread running through it with the evils of capitalism a theme and it's very obvious which company Blackridge are based on.

The book is called "The Final Twist" ,which might suggest that there won't be any more Colter Shaw books but the ending leaves the way open for it to carry on in a slightly different direction,I hope so

The Final Twist is... exactly what is says. Very much of a piece with The Never Game and The Goodbye Man, it is the culmination of Colter Shaw's attempts to avenge his father and complete the latter's quest to expose corporate chicanery (the reason the Shaw family took to a survivalist lifestyle in their remote mountain compound).

To give any more than that is going to be spoilery, so while I'll try to minimise that, you have been warned!

I have loved these books and especially Shaw's - he's described here as The Restless Man - nomadic lifestyle, travelling in his recreational vehicle the length and breadth of the US for posted rewards. I like his modesty, his self-sufficiency, above all his competence. While Shaw may get into some desperate scrapes, he never does so without thought and care and he generally has a few cards up his sleeve.

Inevitably there is less of that lifestyle here. Really Shaw has been hunting down the truth behind his father's obsession and death, and now he's close to the deadly secret behind both. Back in San Francisco, he's located a safe house where he may find some answers. But of course that means he's also closer to the shadowy BlackBridge corporation which seems to be at the heart of the mystery - and to the danger it poses.

This book was really fun to read. To tell you how much fun, I simply CONSUMED this book, racing through it in pretty much one session and ending at some unhallowed time early in the morning. Deaver simply leads the field in page-turning, thrill-packed thrillers that are full of jeopardy and sky high stakes - and The Final Twist is no exception.

We were led to expect corporate chicanery, flooding districts with cheap drugs to ease the way for clearance and redevelopment. If that always seemed a slightly underwhelming reason for the persecution of Shaw's father, well, it does come out here that there was more to it than that. But to get to the truth Shaw needs to solve one last riddle - and he's then faced with an unexpected moral dilemma. That aspect is, though, only part of what's here. Shaw (and BlackBridge) aren't the only players on the field, and some of them seem to have reach, and resources, that go beyond his means to oppose. It's one of those puzzles he might be able to work out if only people would stop trying to kill him and he could think for a while... family is also involved, and we learn a lot more about Shaw's earlier life and the tensions and disputes that led up to his father's death.

I had been a bit worried that the focus on the wider mystery, rather than a missing person reward case, would take the edge off The Final Twist compared with the earlier books. It is a slightly different sort of story, but I needn't have worried - The Final Twist is as addictively readable as them, with a little extra edge all of its own.

In short, it's as perfect as one could wish - definitely not a good place to come into this series, you do need to read these in order - but a fine completion to a trilogy. (Is it a completion? I'd like to read more about Shaw's eccentric lifestyle and he seems to have blazed a trail for the peripatetic lifestyle, viz Nomadland, which, as I have said, I find fascinating).

One of the finest authors in the genre.

Colter Shaw is now on the trail of the corrupt organisation he believes is responsible for the death of his father. However, shadowy figures in the background remind him that safety is an elusive goal.

Another fine thriller from Jeffery Deaver, which moved along at a decent pace, and with enough twists and turns to keep me engaged.

I would like to thank Netgalley and HarperCollins HarperFiction for an advance copy of The Final Twist, the third novel to feature reward man Colter Shaw.

Colter is in San Francisco following his dead father’s cryptic clues to find the information that will take down the nefarious corporation BlackBridge, the corporation that murdered his father and has done untold damage to countless citizens.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Final Twist, which is a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy. It should be noted that this is not a stand-alone thriller and concentrates on the conspiracy that is developed in books one and two with little else going on.

The novel is told from Colter’s point of view and slips back in time occasionally to events from the past. I’m not sure if it due simply to the formatting of the arc I received but this was not well signposted and I found it confusing.

The plot is fairly typical of Mr Deaver’s writing with twists galore, plenty of action and a whole load of misdirection. I never knew what to believe and what to discount, because, even with a healthy dose of cynicism and experience of the author’s mindset, I kept getting caught out and fooled. It’s both clever and engrossing. The conspiracy at the heart of the trilogy seems far fetched, but then you look at each piece and none of them are far from actual events so maybe not so far fetched and that’s scary.

Colter Shaw is an interesting protagonist and I would gladly see more of him in his day job. He was brought up by survivalist parents so she has a lot of unusual skills, a preternatural situational awareness and an analytical mind. These skills help him uncover the conspiracy and in his “normal” life of finding people for the reward money.

The Final Twist is a good read that I have no hesitation in recommending.

Ooooh. This book. Did it meet my expectations? You bet it did and so much more. The Final Twist sees our hero, Colter Shaw, take on his most personal case yet. Because this is personal, a quest for the truth, maybe even revenge, but certainly for justice following the death of his father at the hands of an operative working for the elusive, and very dangerous company, BlackBridge. Taking his search to the streets of San Francisco, as readers we are treated to not only a brilliantly paced and intrigue laden thriller, but also some real surprises, none more so than an unexpected reunion between Shaw and a face from his past.

From the very opening chapters of this book you can feel that underlying tension building, Shaw's quest to find the missing evidence his father was searching for becoming more urgent and yet seemingly more distant with every lead he marks off his list. Although we join the story at a point where Shaw has exhausted nearly all avenues and all clues that his father has left, you never once get the feeling he is likely to give up. That's not in his nature. And that's what I really love a bout the character of Colter Shaw. He's a man who deals in probabilities, constantly working the likelihood of an event occurring whilst concurrently running the scenario through some really complex and dynamic risk assessments. He, and his siblings, have been taught well by their father and his survival skills are finely honed, and yet he is not portrayed as a superman style character. He is as likely to be hurt as any man, although his quick thinking nature give him one heck of head start. And he fights for what is right, even when the cost to him, both financial and physical, can be quite steep.

As much as this is story about Shaw's quest for the truth about his father's death and to bring those he believes responsible to justice, there are also two other threads which run alongside his quest, one inextricably linked to his father's death and that has major repercussions for the far more than just Shaw. The evidence he is searching for is an unknown quantity at first but it doesn't take much hard thinking to work out where Jeffery Deaver may have taken some of his inspiration from for some of the less than scrupulous characters Shaw comes into contact with, or the implications of what he ultimately finds. It's a really chilling thought, but not outside of the realms of possibility and that adds to the sense of jeopardy in everything Shaw does. And because he's not quite busy enough avenging his father's death, Shaw takes on a reward case, a missing young girl whose mother has little to offer, but who Shaw knows that he can help, once again demonstrating his human, caring side.

Now the book is not all about Shaw, and in Droon and Braxton he has two very worthy and dangerous adversaries who are more than willing to twist the knife - quite literally in Droon's case. I really like the way in which the trio play off each other, the strange dynamic between Droon and Baxter combining them to be the almost archetypal villain, between the calm and controlled Braxton and the violence addicted psychopathic nature of Droon. There are others in the frame too, the CEO of BlackBridge for a start, who is always on the periphery, directing the action but keeping his hands clean. All three of the BlackBridge crew are objectionable and yet I can't help liking Droon and Baxter - in as much as you can ever like the stories antagonists. But there is really one other character who is a standout alongside Shaw. I don't want to say too much as I think that part of the story might be spoiled if I did, but a big thumbs up for Russell from me. As removed from Shaw as you could possibly imagine, the two complimented each other perfectly, and I can't help thinking that there are many stories to be told there - perhaps a spin off series?

If you like a well plotted, intelligently written, action packed and mystery laden read, full of misdirection and with more twists and turns than Lombard Street, then this would be right up your street. If you haven't read the previous two books, and why not, then I'd suggest reading at the very least, The Goodbye Man as this book leads on almost directly from that and some of what happens in the story is informed by what Colter Shaw went through before, especially in that book. But you probably want to read The Never Game to understand his, how should I put it, complicated history with Braxton and Droon. So really you probably just want to read all three, and the short stories too, as Colter Shaw is a fantastic character and the very nature of these books and Shaw's chosen career path make this an addictive and intriguing series to read from first book to last.