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ART OF DECEPTION, THE
by Ridley Pearson
Hyperion, August 2002
452 pages
$23.95
ISBN: 0786867248


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Ridley Pearson has been practicing the art of deception since the publication of his last novel, Parallel Lies. In the fall of 2001, ABC premiered a Stephen King miniseries called Rose Red. This film is based on an original television screenplay written by King. A companion book was published several months earlier titled My Life in Rose Red written by Ellen Rimbauer and edited by Joyce Reardon. The thing is that both authors were characters in the movie. Many assumed that Stephen King wrote the diary when it was actually Ridley Pearson who penned the fictional memoir.

Now in Pearson's latest novel things are not as they seem. This book marks the return of Seattle Police Department Captain Lou Boldt, forensic psychologist Lieutenant Daphne Matthews, and Sgt. John LaMoia. They will be investigating the alleged suicide of Mary-Anne Walker and learn that things are not so easily resolved.

The victim's brother is convinced that her sister's boyfriend was responsible for her death. Grief-stricken he tries to murder her lover and then hound Matthews in letting him help her find evidence to put him away. Boldt, who has a lesser role in this novel, is in charge of investigating the disappearance of two businesswomen who had complained to the police about a peeping tom before vanishing. Boldt and Matthews will work on their respective cases in their own way until they find out that their investigations might be related.

It appears that Ridley Pearson is trying to restructure the character dynamics in his regular book series. Its focus is mainly on Lt. Matthews and Sgt. LaMoia. Boldt has had the lead in most of the other novels and his life has remained fairly stable for now. We read about his sexual attraction to Daphne even though he is happily married; the birth of his children; his wife's battle with cancer; and the kidnapping and safe return of his baby daughter. Daphne has evolved since her introduction in Undercurrents and there is still room for improvement. LaMoia was a supporting character in the previous novels and is now being promoted to be part of the lead team. Overall, The Art of Deception is as good as Pearson gets. You get action and suspense, twist and turns, and a good excuse to sit down to enjoy his work.

Reviewed by Angel L. Soto, October 2002

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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