Title: Deeper Than the Dead
Author: Tami Hoag
Publisher: Signet; Reprint edition (October 26, 2010)
Publication Date: October 26, 2010
Paperback: 560 pages
ISBN: 978-0451230539
Genre: Fiction, Mystery, Thriller
California, 1985-Four children and young teacher Anne Navarre make a gruesome discovery: a partially buried female body, her eyes and mouth glued shut. A serial killer is at large, and the very bonds that hold their idyllic town together are about to be tested. Tasked with finding the killer, FBI investigator Vince Leone employs a new and controversial FBI technique called “profiling”, which plunges him into the lives of the four children-and the young teacher whose need to uncover the truth is as intense as his own. But as new victims are found, Vince and Anne find themselves circling the same small group of local suspects, blissfully unaware that someone very near to them is a murderous psychopath…
My Review:
I have been a Tami Hoag fan since 1995 but I took a brief hiatus for reasons I cannot recall and was delighted to be asked to review Deeper Than the Dead by Tami Hoag, which is the first in her newest series and I was thrilled to see how easily I fell into rhythm with the book and Hoag’s writing. After reading the book, I realised just how much I had missed Hoag’s excellently crafted suspenseful books and well developed characters. In Deeper Than the Dead, Hoag takes the reader to Oak Knoll, California, the year is 1985 and for those not as old as me, the 80s lacked the current technological advances found today on television and in modern day suspense thrillers. Police departments did not have computers, pagers were the closest we had to cell phones, forensics was far less advanced and profiling was just entering the scene and not well accepted. Hoag cleverly sets the stage and has four children from Anne Navarre’s 5th grade class stumble upon a body in the woods. Anne works closely with the local deputies, especially Mendez and FBI profiler Vince Leone to help with the case. Anne works closely with the students to learn what they know and to find out about their lives while Mendez and Leone work to discover not only the identities of the women, but also create a profile of the serial killer. Hoag masterfully creates a suspenseful plot from page one, offering up many red herrings along the way as the reader is drawn deeper and deeper into not only the case, but also the lives of Anne, Vince, and the four children as well as their parents. Rich in detail, prose, fantastic character development, and enough plot twists to delight any suspense fan, Hoag’s novel is one the will capture the reader and not let go until the very end. I found myself unable to set down the book and devoured all 560 pages without realising time passing. The second book in the series Secrets to the Grave will be released on 28 December and I am fortunate to have read that book as well. Please check back on 23 December for the review of Secrets to the Grave. I highly recommend Deeper Than the Dead to any reader who enjoys an excellent suspense novel.
Tami Hoag is the #1 bestselling author of thirty novels. Since 1995′s Night Sins, each succeeding book has been a New York Times bestseller. She lives in Southern California and Florida.
To learn more about Tami Hoag please visit her website, follow her on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.
I received a complimentary copy of Deeper Than the Dead by Tami Hoag from TLC Book Tours to be a part of this tour and offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.
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