Rating: 
Summary: Boldt & Co. continue to evolve
Review: 'The Body of David Hayes' is the latest installment in the drama that centers around Lieutenant Lou Boldt, family, and friends. Ridley Pearson's series has, in the past, focused on Lou Boldt, psychologist Daphne Matthews, and detective, now sargeant, John Lamoia as they used high tech forensic science, psychology, and a bit of good old fashioned detective work to track down kidnappers, killers, and rapers. Along the way, Pearson has gone into great depth about the home lives concerning the characters.Daphne and John have settled into a live in relationship. This came about in the previous novel, which featured Matthews. Consequently, these two figures, while always prominent in past novels, are really no more than side characters in 'The Body of David Hayes.' John gets a fair amount of attention, but Matthews only really appears in about a dozen pages. The attention of this novel is squarely on Lou Boldt and his wife Liz. The novel reaches back into the earlier installments of the series, and a past lover of Liz's is parolled after serving several years on his sentence for embezelling millions from the bank Liz worked out. Suddenly, Liz finds her entire world, including her career and marriage, in peril as the affair is threatened to be exposed. While the Boldt's focus on this disruption on their lives, Lou sets out to piece together what exactly is happening. An old friend appears to have gone maverick in an attempt to close the old embezzlement case. The prosecuting attorney suddenly doesn't look so good either. David Hayes is on the loose, and what he is up to is an enigma. To top it all off, the Russian mafia enters the scene. Suddenly, who is an ally and who is an enemy is not quite so clear. Crime scenes are no longer clear, and cast suspicion on many characters. 'The Body of David Hayes' continues Pearson's string of well written novels. His writing, which was always strong, has grown and he is no longer just adept at writing a suspenseful thriller, but has captured the ability to add color to everyday scenes. The turmoil between Lou and Liz is thick and suffocating. The only down point is that while Pearson kept the readers in suspense as to who exactly the 'bad guy' is, it almost becomes to confusing. Frequently, Liz or Lou would make some sort of discovery which would appear to be profound, but didn't seem to enlighten the reader much. This wouldn't be a problem if the story would then evolve from that point as if the reader had kept up. This doesn't happen a great deal, but enough to be distracting at points. All in all, its a good novel. Once I started, I couldn't put it down. I recommend it to any fan of Pearson's work or the Boldt series, and any fan of police or crime fiction in general. Some knowledge of previous novels in the series would help, but it is not essential to understanding this novel. Pearson does a good job of summing up the back story so that the new reader is informed without it becoming cumbersome.
Rating:
Summary: Boldt & Co. continue to evolve
Review: 'The Body of David Hayes' is the latest installment in the drama that centers around Lieutenant Lou Boldt, family, and friends. Ridley Pearson's series has, in the past, focused on Lou Boldt, psychologist Daphne Matthews, and detective, now sargeant, John Lamoia as they used high tech forensic science, psychology, and a bit of good old fashioned detective work to track down kidnappers, killers, and rapers. Along the way, Pearson has gone into great depth about the home lives concerning the characters. Daphne and John have settled into a live in relationship. This came about in the previous novel, which featured Matthews. Consequently, these two figures, while always prominent in past novels, are really no more than side characters in 'The Body of David Hayes.' John gets a fair amount of attention, but Matthews only really appears in about a dozen pages. The attention of this novel is squarely on Lou Boldt and his wife Liz. The novel reaches back into the earlier installments of the series, and a past lover of Liz's is parolled after serving several years on his sentence for embezelling millions from the bank Liz worked out. Suddenly, Liz finds her entire world, including her career and marriage, in peril as the affair is threatened to be exposed. While the Boldt's focus on this disruption on their lives, Lou sets out to piece together what exactly is happening. An old friend appears to have gone maverick in an attempt to close the old embezzlement case. The prosecuting attorney suddenly doesn't look so good either. David Hayes is on the loose, and what he is up to is an enigma. To top it all off, the Russian mafia enters the scene. Suddenly, who is an ally and who is an enemy is not quite so clear. Crime scenes are no longer clear, and cast suspicion on many characters. 'The Body of David Hayes' continues Pearson's string of well written novels. His writing, which was always strong, has grown and he is no longer just adept at writing a suspenseful thriller, but has captured the ability to add color to everyday scenes. The turmoil between Lou and Liz is thick and suffocating. The only down point is that while Pearson kept the readers in suspense as to who exactly the 'bad guy' is, it almost becomes to confusing. Frequently, Liz or Lou would make some sort of discovery which would appear to be profound, but didn't seem to enlighten the reader much. This wouldn't be a problem if the story would then evolve from that point as if the reader had kept up. This doesn't happen a great deal, but enough to be distracting at points. All in all, its a good novel. Once I started, I couldn't put it down. I recommend it to any fan of Pearson's work or the Boldt series, and any fan of police or crime fiction in general. Some knowledge of previous novels in the series would help, but it is not essential to understanding this novel. Pearson does a good job of summing up the back story so that the new reader is informed without it becoming cumbersome.
Rating: 
Summary: MAKE A DECISION, RIDLEY!!!!!
Review: Either write romantic suspense where all the stories have happy endings and the couples get together and stay together or right a gritty police procedural with real human emotions. don't try to combine the two--this effort was a mediocre one at best. The Art of Deception was much better.
And did you review any of your previous works in the series, before writing this--because it doesn't fit the timeline that the other books set out. Liz's affair with David Hayes couldn't have happened six years ago--by my alculations, that would have made it in the middle of No Witnesses--a good example of your writing. And you established in that book, and in Art of Deception that LIz knew about Daphne.
Finally, Lou whines too much and lies too much to himself about his feelings. Either get rid of him, or demote him to minor character status and bring on John and Daphne. I wish I got a copy of the connecting chapter; maybe that would explain a few things.
Rating: 
Summary: NOT WORTH THE EXCRUCIATING WAIT!!!!!!!
Review: I should have expected nothing after the First Victim but Middle of Nowhere and Art of Deception set me up to hopefully learn more about John and Daphne and their budding relationship and more about Liz. But then Ridley made it seem like those two books didn't even exist with this whiney diatribe about how horrible Lou's life is with a "cheating" wife and how he doesn't understand how his lover Daphne could go off with someone such as John LaMoia. Puhleeeeeeeeeeeeeze!!!!!
And Has Ridley spent anytime in the Seattle area recently--I don't think so!!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: It passed the time well
Review: I'd like to start off by saying this is my first book on CD that I have ever listened to. So I don't know if all novels have just one reader for all the voices or if generally they have both female and male readers for the parts. But for me, the story was diminished because the man who narrated did the female parts as well as the male, and I had a hard time connecting with Liz, who was one of the main characters because of it. He sounded like a man pretending to be a woman, which reminded me a little of comedy skits on TV, so it was hard to take Liz's character seriously because of the "mental image" I had developed of a cross dressing man with a bad wig in Liz's part. Perhaps this is only my own problem and would not be a problem for others more used to the book on CD format.
The story was action packed, it kept me interested and the plot had a lot of twists and turns to it. As for the rest of the male voices in the story he did a fabulous job. They were each distinct and I could tell who was who just by how he read it. My only critizism of the story itself is that Liz and Bolt's kids were tossed in the story, and they weren't well developed and I felt that things would have been fine without them since they had no major roles in the plot line at all.
I took this on a 10 hour road trip and it did pass the time nicely. It definitely was not boring to listen to.
Rating:
Summary: Not Bad...
Review: I've been a Ridley Pearson fan for a long time. But while I enjoyed this book and devoured it in a day and a half, I agree with some of the other reviewers when they say that this is not his best effort. I'm not saying the book is bad. I'm just saying that he's kind of shifted emphasis off Boldt and Daphne and onto Boldt and Liz. That means we get a lot more about the Boldts home life, and less about the police work. In a series about a homicide cop, this book ran against the grain, becoming a novel about bank fraud and the marital relationship between a man and his wife. I applaud the character depth that Ridley went into, but I'd definitely like to get back on the main stream of things and reading about Boldt, Matthews and LaMoia again. This book seemed almost a spinoff from the original series. I also felt that the direction the story took seemed to lead Boldt to do things that were out of character for him. I'm not gonna give away any spoilers, but well go read it and you'll see what I mean. Overall, as it always is with any Pearson novel, the writing was tight and suspense masterful. If you're an existing Pearson fan, you should read this. If you're not, don't start with this book because it's not an adequate representation of the power of his work. Pick up one of his earlier novels-- like "No Witnesses" or "The Pied Piper", then come back and read this one later.
Rating:
Summary: Cheap Tricks
Review: In one sense, this book is an easy read. In another, it doesn't make much sense. I kept looking back to see if I missed something on the previous page(s). When an author withholds information that would allow the reader to understand what's going on, and never explains suppositions that guide central characters' judgments and actions relative to each other, the reader is faced with wading through writing tricks masquerading as suspense and character development. That's what we have here. Pretty thin stuff. In the end, the main character Lou Boldt is described as lieing in the post incident police investigation. The author doesn't even offer us that writer's gimmick to tie together the story (as well as exposing true police procedure).
The consensus of reviewers is that other Pearson novels in this series are better. I'll have to check one more.
Rating:
Summary: Not one of his best by a long shot
Review: Ridley Pearson is a real hit or miss author and this one is a miss. This resembles a plot for a soap opera and not a thriller.
The only thrill is when it finally ends and I confess I skimmed
the last 20 or so pages because I just didn't care how Liz got
out of her jam. Boldt is supposed to be madly scrambling to save
his marriage, but he still finds time to be irritated that
Daphne has moved on with his friend, LaMoia. The whole Lou/Liz
bit has run its course, and LaMoia was infinitely more interesting before finding domestic bliss. We need a little action in the next book, Ridley!
Rating:
Summary: An incredibly, boring, disappointment
Review: Ridley Pearson is an author that I've come to eagerly await each new release with great anticipation. The Body of David Hayes was such a let down. The past several books have led up to a very interesting relationship between LaMoia and Daphne. They were hardly referred to in this book at all and it was as tho they were cardboard characters when reference was made to their relationship. The book could have been an opportunity for Lou and Liz Boldt to strengthen and grow within their relationship while letting the reader gain a greater understanding and appreciation of their characters. Instead, Lou and Liz are just about the last two folks I'd invite to lunch. They were boring, whiney, and for two people that have been thru as much as they have--they showed a marked non-understanding of each other and their characters as well as being unable to get past the past. If you are reading the Lou Boldt series for the first time--this is not representative of Pearson's ability or writing skill. Go back and read the previous books and then hope that he finds his muse again for the next book!
Rating: 
Summary: The Body of David Hayes - More than a Thriller
Review: Ridley Pearson's latest offering in the Lou Boldt series is one that combines Pearson's talent for writing outstanding police procedurals with his insight into human behavior. While the basic story is a thriller and Boldt is put through his paces dealing with a thief, the Russian Mafia, his own colleagues and Liz's co-workers at the bank (the tension level starts on high and remains there), the deeper story is one of two people, Lou and Liz, trying to put a marriage back together and protect their family and their careers. It's a story of betrayals and forgiveness with a healthy dose of realism. Pearson's portrayal of the conflicts and cooperation between the different branches of law enforcement give the reader what I believe is a very realistic portrayal of the "system", both the good and the bad.
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