Rating: 
Summary: If He's Dead, Where is the Body?
Review: Seattle Homicide Detective Lou Boldt is back in his ninth Ridley Pearson thriller and he's called to the assault of an old friend, BCI officer Danny Foreman. BCI stands for Bureau of Criminal Investigation, sort of Washington State's version of a local FBI. Foreman had been drugged and beaten and he tells Boldt that David Hayes is getting out of jail soon.
Years ago Hayes stole seventeen million dollars from the bank where Lou's wife Liz is an executive. He also had an affair with her and that's hard for Lou to handle. The money was never recovered and it was a black mark on Foreman's career. Lou suspects Foreman of going after Hayes, but does he want to clear up an old case or does he want the money for himself.
And there is a mean as nails Russian Mafia boss who is after Hayes as well, because it was his money that was stolen. And everybody seems to be after Lou's wife, because the money is apparently still in the bank's system, but only Hayes with his special software can get at it to wire it out and he needs Liz to gain access to the computer. So does the Russian Mafia guy. Then all of a sudden Hayes goes missing, leaving only a bloody crime scene in his wake. It looks like he's been killed, but there is no body. But someone is still after Liz. What gives?
This is a nonstop, action packed thriller that won't let you go till you're finished. Mr. Pearson has given new life to Lt. Lou Boldt by showing us his personal and very human side. I just can't praise this book enough.
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Summary: Pearson's Greatest Strengths are Exhibited Here
Review: THE BODY OF DAVID HAYES is the ninth of Ridley Pearson's novels featuring Seattle Police Detectives Lou Boldt and Daphne Matthews. Pearson has infused these books with a number of interesting elements and has reached the point where he can pick and choose among them so that each new offering in the series is familiar yet never predictable. The series is set in Seattle, one of the more fascinating cities in the United States, so that Pearson can build his story around a point of interest (as he did so brilliantly in THE ART OF DECEPTION, for example). He can feature either Boldt or Matthews as the focal point of the story, or alternate between the two. Given the longevity of the series, Pearson can also reach into the past and use it as a propellant for a story set in the present.THE BODY OF DAVID HAYES is primarily a Boldt book. Actually, that's not quite accurate, as a great deal of the novel concerns Boldt's wife Liz. Lou and Liz hit a rough patch several years previous to the events in THE BODY OF DAVID HAYES. It was during this period that Lou had a brief fling with Daphne Matthews and Liz had an affair with David Hayes, a brilliant computer specialist at Seattle's WestCorp Bank, where Liz is an executive. Lou and Liz were each aware of the other's infidelity; neither of them knew the identity of the other's partner. After Liz ended her affair with Hayes, he embarked on a scheme at the behest of the Russian Mafia wherein he used his computer skills to steal 17 million dollars from WestCorp. The money was never recovered. Hayes is now out on parole and is seeking to recover the money, and with good reason: he has been put on notice by the Russian mob that his life is in danger if he cannot retrieve it. His intrusion back into Liz's life is sudden and dramatic. Hayes cannot recover the money without access to the inner computer workings of the bank, and Liz is his only way in. What is worse from Liz's standpoint is that her affair with Hayes will be revealed if she does not assist him. Liz, torn between protecting the bank and keeping her family safe, goes to Lou and confesses her prior involvement with Hayes as well as the potential for blackmail, which, of course, will affect Lou as well. Pearson sets up a neat and interesting dichotomous situation here, whereby Lou has to compartmentalize his feelings as a jealous husband from his job as a law enforcement officer. Complicating matters is the Russian Mafia, who is squeezing Hayes physically and Liz emotionally, and Danny Foreman, a Washington State BCI investigator who is an old friend of the Boldts but whose investigation into Hayes's activities puts him at odds with Lou. The story races to a conclusion in which Lou attempts to orchestrate several different scenarios that take place simultaneously, all with the aim of preventing the recovery of the money while attempting to protect Liz from the terrible danger she is in. Pearson in THE BODY OF DAVID HAYES has once again worked his unique magic, creating a plausible high-tech tale that never gets bogged down in the minutiae of computer jargon while playing his characters' emotions off of each other. The ultimate effects on Lou and Liz Boldt of the events that take place in THE BODY OF DAVID HAYES are left ambiguous at the end of the novel and will undoubtedly unfold in later installments of this series, providing both an expectation for the future and a realistic touch upon the personal lives of the characters. One is left truly caring about what will happen to these people; the ability to instill this emotion in his readers is, perhaps, Pearson's greatest strength in his formidable literary arsenal. --- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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Summary: Another page-turner by Ridley Pearson
Review: The Body of David Hayes, by Ridley Pearson
Conflict grips the reader from the first page of Ridley Pearson's latest novel, The Body of David Hayes. Lou Boldt is called to the scene of an attack on an old friend of his, a cop with whom he and his wife Liz were close friends at one time. No longer, though, and this particular cop, known for his unorthodox approach to law enforcement, becomes a key player in Pearson's tense thriller.
On one level, this novel examines the pain of betrayal in a marriage that has already had its share of trials. Several years ago, during her recovery from a body-wracking treatment for cancer, Liz Boldt had an affair with David Hayes, a bright young computer technician at the bank where she holds a high position. Not long after, Hayes went to prison for embezzling $17 million. Though six years have passed, Liz and Lou are still recovering from the guilt and damage.
One day, out of the blue, Hayes calls Liz and asks for a meeting. Ashamed and afraid, she finds herself emotionally blackmailed into helping him retrieve the missing money. It turns out that he stole the money from the Russian mafia, and they have already tortured him for information. Consequently, the head of the Russian mafia knows about the affair that Liz and Boldt have struggled to keep a secret, and he doesn't hesitate to use Liz's position and expertise at the bank to gain access to the institution's mainframe computer. Liz has to tell Boldt the whole story, which tears open the still-painful wounds in their relationship. Boldt struggles to stand by her, and the tension builds as he finds a way to play his own colleagues, the mafia, the bank honchos, and the original thief off one another in his attempt to protect his wife and children.
I was riveted by this relentless page turner and complex police procedural well past my bedtime, anxious to discover how the respectable and charismatic Lou Boldt could untangle the web of deception around his wife. Ridley Pearson has written another captivating thriller.
Rating:
Summary: Hard to put down
Review: The fast-paced and engrossing THE BODY OF DAVID HAYNES is the ninth outing for Lou Boldt. Boldt is somewhat of a legend in the SPD. He has the highest case clearance per average in the history in the Seattle Police Department. The book opens when he is called to a scene where friend and fellow officer is drugged and beaten on a stakeout of a trailer. Missing from the scene is David Hayes, the subject of the stakeout. Six years earlier David Hayes worked as technical computer support in the same bank where Lou's wife, Liz was an officer. During a dark time in the Boldt marriage, Liz had an affair with David Hayes and it almost destroyed the Boldt marriage. After the affair was over Hayes embezzled seventeen million dollars from the bank. He was caught, but the money was never recovered. Several parties are interested in retrieving the money now that Hayes is released from jail including the bank, police, and the original owners of the money, the Russian mob. David is on the run and he contacts Liz to help him get the money, which has been in limbo since his arrest. He is afraid for his life if he does not get the money back to the mob he stole it from. Liz is only one of few that has access to the codes to transfer the money. Events escalate until both the Boldt's marriage and their children are threatened. Boldt is put into the position of having to protect his family over the interests of the police department. From the very first page, the reader is drawn into this story. It is an extremely well plotted thriller that has the suspense building throughout the whole story until the very end. As good as the story is there is more at play here than just another good thriller which many books can claim to be. Where Pearson excels is at the finely tuned drawing of his characters as human beings, their frailties and their proclivity for secrets that come back to haunt them. The scenes between the Boldts are fraught with anger, hurt, tension and love as they try to get past wounds that could unravel their marriage. This is one of the best books I have read in a long time.
Rating: 
Summary: Bye Bye Boldt
Review: This will be the last Lou Boldt book I buy. It might also be the last Ridley Pearson book I buy. Tea-drinking, jazz-playing, sensitive but competent Lou has finally become an utter bore. This time out, the story never quite takes off, and it never really pays off. (If you don't count the revelation the Boldt's son, Miles - MILES! - is actually a child prodigy, a little Mozart.) Mainly we trudge along, knee-deep in Lou and Liz's struggle with her past infidelity. Boldt doesn't actually DO anything but wrestle with his emotions. Even LaMoia fails to light things up, seemingly just along for the ride. I almost didn't read the last 20 pages! Reader beware....
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