Twisted -- Jeffery Deaver

As I mentioned in my comments on Jeffery Deaver's second collection of short stories, MORE TWISTED, he who lives by the twist ending dies by the twist ending. Happy to report, Deaver lives more than he dies in this first collection, which I thought was considerably better than the second one, which I still liked. There were more stories in this one where I wasn't able to figure out the ending, including one that really had my jaw dropping on the last page. And there weren't any stories that came to a crashing halt while Deaver explained everything that was going on. This collection's well worth reading, and now the question is whether or not I want to try one of Deaver's novels again. If I do, I'm sure I'll have something to say about it here.

More Twisted -- Jeffery Deaver

I’m not that familiar with Jeffery Deaver’s work. Several years ago I read THE BONE COLLECTOR, the first book in the Lincoln Rhyme series, and liked it well enough, but I’ve never worked up enough interest to read the others in the series, although I may get around to them one of these days. I also read his story in the anthology TRANSGRESSIONS and liked it, too.

Since I’m always in the mood for a good short story collection, I picked up MORE TWISTED, the second volume of Deaver’s stories, mostly reprints but a few originals, including a new Lincoln Rhyme yarn. He makes it clear in the introduction that his short stories are all about the twist ending. Well, you live by the twist ending, you die by the twist ending. And Deaver does some of both in this book. A few of the stories are so cleverly written that I smacked my forehead and said, “D’oh!” when I got to the endings. Should’ve seen the twist coming, but I didn’t. Those are the ones I liked the best. With some of the stories I figured out the ending well in advance, but the plots were interesting enough and the writing good enough that I didn’t care. In others the twist came from so far out in left field that I couldn’t believe them at all. And in still others – the ones I liked the least – for some reason Deaver brings the story’s momentum to a screeching halt several pages before the end to explain the twist, rather than letting it come out naturally. I suspect that most readers would have this same variety of reactions to the stories, although those reactions might be assigned to different stories than the ones that prompted them in me, if that makes sense. That’s why I haven’t singled out any of them by title. Read the book yourself, because I do think it’s worth reading for the good stories. I enjoyed it enough that since reading it I’ve picked up TWISTED, the first volume of Deaver’s stories.