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"In California's Monterey Peninsula, a killer leaves roadside crosses along highways to mark future victims. Agent Kathryn Dance, a body language expert at the California Bureau of Investigation, investigates the case, discovering that not only is the killer using blogs and social networking sites to select his victims, but that he also is a troubled teenager bent on revenge. As Dance works toward catching her suspect, she finds her efforts hampered by politicians and the bloggers themselves." (From the CD container.)
I have no children, so I'll ask those of you that do: Do teenagers truly sound as moronic when they talk as many authors make them sound? It's as if they want to make certain the reader is aware that the character that is speaking is not an adult, so they go into overdrive on what they believe is current teenage slang. Or maybe they really do talk that way. In which case I can only pray I never sounded that stupid at that age. Thinking back, I probably did. :-)
Anyway, that has not got a lot to do with Roadside Crosses
as a whole. I am a huge Jeffery Deaver fan, and if that's how he wants to make teens talk, fine. Just get on with the story. And he does.I liked Roadside Crosses a lot. The wild twists that Deaver is known for are not as jaw-dropping in this book as they have been in previous works, but it's still pretty darn good. We get to know much more about the person of Kathryn Dance and her family and friends while she's investigating the crimes. She is becoming a very strong character that I think will quickly become popular with mystery fans. Her stories aren't as technology-detailed as Deaver's Lincoln Rhyme novels and will appeal to readers who prefer more of the human element in their mysteries.
Roadside Crosses is the third book in which Kathryn Dance appears and the second in which she is the lead character. It is not necessary to be familiar with the previous books to enjoy this one, but if you want to start at the beginning, here is the order of her appearances up to now. I have not posted about the earlier books, so all the links go to Amazon in case you'd like to check out the reviews there.
The Cold Moon: A Lincoln Rhyme Novel
The Sleeping Doll
Roadside Crosses
Dickens presents a critical picture of England in 1853. He condemns the insidious power of a hideous legal system which creeps like London fog into the lives of every character in the book. Dickens ingeniously links characters from all backgrounds from Esther Summerson, an orphan given support by the kindly Mr. Jarndyce, owner of Bleak House, to Lady Dedlock who lives with a secret she can't reveal. Tulkinghorn, the ruthless lawyer, Krook the shopkeeper and Jo, the pathetic crossing-sweeper, are all finely drawn characters that enrich this story of the unravelling of Lady Dedlock's secret by Inspector Bucket, whose appearance in this novel can give it a claim to be the first English detective novel." (From the CD container.)
is rather small and doesn't look like it contains much great information, but it's got some fun trivia questions on each page and I can't help but pick up books about books.
. That one line told me he knows of what he speaks. I can't wait to get to this one!! It looks like he has a blog, too: 
to be an extremely interesting book. It takes on the battles of "Gut v. Intellect" and "Personality v. Expertise". He talks about the above noted Great Premises as they pertain to television and the internet, Intelligent Design v. Darwinism, sensationalist media, talk radio, reality TV, global warming, Terry Schiavo, 9/11, the Iraq War, the War on Terror, the 2008 presidential election, and more. Conservatives will hate this book. Liberals will most likely love it, but they don't completely escape Charles Pierce's scathing commentary either. His irritation is not completely politically driven and therefore merrily crosses party lines here and there. It's not that Pierce believes that America has dumbed itself down, but that it is "selling off what ought never to be rendered a product, . . . and believing itself to have made a good bargain with itself." (p. 276)
