The Never Game, by Jeffery Deaver, hit the store on May 14th and I finished reading it, breathlessly, in the span of a few days. I hung on every word, devouring the pages. Colter Shaw is that character I want to read about. He’s a private eye (don’t you dare call him that), who lives in an RV, going from state to state, helping find missing people. Recently, he has returned to the Bay Area, searching for Sophie, a missing college student, whose father is offering $10,000 for the return of his daughter. Shaw could use that money. The private eye business is never a steady gig, even for a PI of Shaw’s caliber.

Despite his rugged persona and home on wheels, Shaw is a near level genius who quickly calculates the odds of Sophie being still alive. Spoiler alert: they are not great. And as Shaw finds out, Sophie is not the only person missing under suspicious circumstances. There are others. The crumbles of clues, establish a frighting connection between a popular video game, The Whispering Man and the disappearances. In the game, the player is deserted with five objects to help him escape.

If you are one of those people who skim through a prologue, I highly advise against it in the Never Game. The prologue might confuse you at first, because it reads as though you are dropped in the middle of an amped up scene. Shaws is trying to rescue Elizabeth Chabelle and her unborn baby from a sinking vessel. We don’t get to find out if he is successful in the prologue. The book begins two days before Elizabeth’s rescue. At first I wasn’t sure if I will like the set up, it’s actually brilliant and creates a plot twist that hooks you.

Jeffery Deaver is going on tour and you can head out to his website to see if he’s going to be in a town near you.