The Bodies Left Behind, by Jeffery Deaver (Simon & Schuster, 350 pp., $26.95)
by Charles V. Kiyomura
A 911 call comes in from a remote cabin on Lake Mondac. Deputy Brynn Mackenzie is closest, so she fields the call. The cabins on Lake Mondac are vacation homes for rich people from the city, so the call can mean anything, especially since it’s a hang up.
Mackenzie enters the cabin to find two fresh corpses, shot point blank. The killers are still on site and she has to shoot her way out to get to her vehicle. Pursued by unknown assailants, a shotgun blast sends her car into the lake. She swims her way out, but loses her firearm and cell phone.
No time to call for back up, the next town is miles away. She scrambles through the woods to find a survivor of the shooting. Michelle was staying with the Feldmans when the shooting began. Frightened, she fled the scene. Mackenzie has taken every survivor course offered and now is the time to put that knowledge to use. The killers are tracking them and they hope to find the nearest ranger’s station. At this time of year it’ll be unmanned but at least there will be a phone.
As Mackenzie and Michelle make it through the woods, they uncover a trailer parked in the middle of nowhere. Good fortune turns to panic as the occupants turn out to producing meth and they take the pair hostage, held alongside a nine-year-old-girl, daughter of one of the drug kingpins.
The Bodies Left Behind has an extremely convoluted plot, even for Jeffery Deaver. He conjures stories with twists and turns, leaving the reader anxiously awaiting clues leading to the players both good and bad. Even a scorecard wouldn’t help here. But it keeps the reader on his toes and Deaver does a credible job of keeping the tension high. The Bodies Left Behind is a very good book. ER
