Review - Captivated by Jeffery Deaver

Captivated (a Colter Shaw short story)
Jeffery Deaver
HarperCollins, 5 March 2019
e-book

I'm grateful to HarperCollins for a free copy of this e-book via NetGalley.

Captivated introduces Colter Shaw, Deaver's new protagonist who will soon feature in his own novel, The Never Game. It's a short story - I read in about 30 minutes.

Shaw makes his living from reward money, travelling up and down the US in a Winnebago - going wherever the rewards are. Seemingly a solitary, self-sufficient man (we learn a bit about his childhood in a remote rural compound with his mother and his increasingly paranoid father) he's clearly a competent operator, always calculating the odds before he gets into anything.

In this story, it's a missing person case. Car dealer Ron Matthews' artist wife, Evelyn, has vanished and he offers a ten thousand dollar reward to Shaw to find her. But what's really going on here? Has Evelyn been kidnapped? Is she having an affair? is she trying to get away from an abusive husband?

Shaw runs the odds, takes notes, and begins his enquiry. I liked the way Deaver makes what happens plausible; the investigation, Shaw's misgivings and his determination not to do anything that might put Evie in danger, above all the way that he (eventually) roots the solution to the whole thing in little details that I hadn't noticed first time round. It is a mystery in the best sense, even if the length of the story - and the nature of events - doesn't allow much scope for character development. That can come in later books.

For bow it's clear that Shaw is resourceful, honourable, and has support he can call upon when he needs it. he may be a loner but he doesn't seem to be one of those fictional investigators who runs off into danger without - as I said, weighing the odds.

It augurs well for the forthcoming novel where I hope we'll learn more about Colter Shaw.