Title: Deeper Than The Dead
Author: Tami Hoag
544 pages
Publisher: Signet
Buy The Book: Amazon
Summary:
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… (Summary provided by the publisher.)
My Thoughts:
Ever wondered how crimes were solved before the introduction of DNA matches and criminal profiling? Better yet, ever wonder how the people who developed these methods and were responsible for integrating these ideas into everyday practice within the law enforcement community were accepted by their peers? Were they hailed as heroes? Or were they thought of as witch doctors coming to spread a new voodoo within the law enforcement community? Deeper Than The Dead, the first novel in author Tami Hoag’s latest series takes readers back to the year 1985 when DNA technology and criminal profiling were still in their infancy.
Throughout the novel Hoag writes from many different points-of-view and manages to make each one very real and unique. She was at her best when writing from the POV of each of the four children that discovered the body at the beginning of the book. She paints a vivid portrait of each child quickly drawing her readers into the home lives of the children. As a former teacher, I could relate Hoag’s portrayal of the children’s teacher Anne Navarre. I also enjoyed the unpredictable romantic subplot involving Anne. Just when I thought I had that plotline all figured out, Hoag threw in a curveball. And that wasn’t the only curveball by any means. I had no clue until the end of the book who the killer would turn out to be! Normally, by about a quarter of the way through a thriller I have it all figured out, but MS. Hoag managed to surprise me.
In the year 1985 I was 10 years old, so Hoag’s writing brought back memories of a very different time. A time when women’s shirtsleeves were puffy and their bangs poofy. A time when men’s jackets were for “Members Only” and everyone loved catching up with The Golden Girls on Saturday nights. A time when cell phones were had by few and NBC still boasted “Must See TV” with The Cosby Show on Thursday nights. Not only does Tami Hoag capture the time period beautifully, but in the midst of all the 80s nostalgia Hoag manages to sneak in a killer storyline that does not disappoint.
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Have you read any good thrillers or mysteries lately? Leave a comment and let me know! Also, I love getting new Twitter followers and lots of Facebook “likes”!
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I just want to say that my name is also Mandy, and I read this book.
I’m going to get this for my eReader right now. Thanks, I had just started to run low on material when I found this site. It’s just what I needed, so thanks!
I haven’t read much of your archives, but regarding mysteries and thrillers that I’ve read lately, I really enjoyed Worth Dying For by Lee Child and love all the Jack Reacher novels; the most recent Lisa Gardner book was good (Live to Tell), and I enjoyed Bad Blood (latest Virgil Flowers novel by John Sandford). The Reversal by Michael Connelly was pretty good, if some of the dialogue seemed forced. But the best thriller I’ve read all year was the Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson. You’ve probably reviewed these already so I apologize if there’s any redundancy.