The Devil's Teardrop

Jeffery Deaver

Average Rating 9/10 (2 Reviews)

It's Washington, D.C.; it's the last night of the year, and people are dying...

At 9 am on New Year's Eve 1999 a man gets onto the packed escalator of a metro station and fires a silenced machine gun into the crowd. He escapes without being spotted in the confusion caused by the horror of this vicious attack, which leaves dozens of people killed and injured.

One hour later, a note is delivered to the mayor: twenty million dollars, or the writer will instruct the killer to strike again; at 4 pm, at 9 PM, at midnight... hundreds more will die.

The money has to be found, the ransom will have to be paid. But then a hit-and-run victim is identified as the mastermind behind the operation, and suddenly there's no way of stopping the psychotic gunman killing again, and again, and again...

The only thing the FBI have to go on is the note. Parker Kincaid, forensic document expert, and agent in charge, Margaret Lukas, could be the only people who can stop the killer.

Review by Nigel (010901) Rating (8/10)
Review by Chrissi (310701) Rating (9/10)

Review by Nigel
Rating 8/10
Upon reading the blurb for this novel (see opposite) I couldn't wait to read it. The District of Columbia is being held to ransom by a devious criminal who has set a psychopath loose on New Years Eve with the instructions to kill as many people as possible.

Fast, action packed, with twists and turns galore. Deaver keeps you on the edge of your seat and when the supposed bad guy gets away/is caught/is killed/is kidnapped by aliens ( trying not to spoil it :) and you realise there are still 50 pages to go you know all is not what it seems.
Nigel (1st September 2001)

Review by Chrissi
Rating 9/10
There is a bit of a story with this one, we went to see Ru in Germany for a couple of weeks in the early summer, and we found a strange little bookshop in the back streets of Stuttgart. Owned by an American gentleman, with loads of books and having read the two Vincenzi books that I took with me, I bought two (slightly battered) Jeffery Deaver books, this and the Lesson of her Death.

This one only lasted as far as the airport, and the other was finished within hours of arriving back in England. But they both cost me two marks (about 60p) and they have German price stickers, so although they will not fit in the photograph album, they are a nice reminder.

The story opens on the last day of the year 2000 with a machine gun toting killer mowing down a number of people in central Washington. A note is received by the law enforcement agencies asking for money or else the gunman will strike again every four hours. Unfortunately the man delivering the note is killed by a hit and run driver which leaves no method by which to catch the killer, so the FBI have to find the killer with no leads as to his identity.

The Devil's Teardrop refers to a handwriting characteristic which Parker Kincaid, forensic document expert, an ex-FBI special agent has noted in the handwriting of psychopathic suspects. Parker is reluctant to become involved in the case but he is soon drawn in, fighting against an adversary with the devil's teardrop in his handwriting.

I really enjoyed this, definitely one of Mr. Deaver's best, the handwriting aspect appeals to me, with a vague interest in graphology, and the crime aspect is fascinating, not least with the twist in the tale that is truly staggering.

Once started, you will not put this down, I couldn't.
Chrissi (31st July 2001)