The Body of David Hayes

by Ridley Pearson Narrated by Dick Hill

Overview

Years ago, Lou Boldt's wife Liz had an affair with David Hayes, a young computer specialist at the bank where she is an executive. When Liz ended the relationship after reconciling with Lou, Hayes engaged in a daring embezzlement scheme. Now, years later, Hayes is trying to retrieve the money he hid for the Russian mob and contacts Liz to try to gain access to the bank's mainframe. Liz is torn between wanting to protect the bank and needing to protect her family. Boldt, ripped apart by the discovery of his wife's possible blackmail, must skate a delicate line between his incompatible roles as determined detective and jealous husband if he is to find the money while exposing and stopping Hayes.

Intensely involving and revealing new aspects of Boldt's emotional makeup never before seen, The Body of David Hayes is Ridley's most gripping and engaging thriller yet.

Editorial Reviews

Arizona Republic

He's industrious, persistent, and brave enough to take characters off the beaten path . . .

The Baltimore Sun

Strong, inventive and a decided cut above standard police procedurals with well-drawn, intense characters and great plotting . . . a must.

Publishers Weekly

Lt. Lou Boldt is still top cop in the ninth installment of Pearson's Seattle Police Department series. (Undercurrents; No Witnesses; etc.). This time the case involves Boldt's wife, Liz, who's weathered many a storm throughout her marriage: chemotherapy, a separation, the kidnapping of their daughter and now the revelation of her affair with David Hayes, a computer whiz at the bank where she's an executive. Hayes embezzled $17 million and went to jail, but now he's free and the never-recovered money has both cops and robbers interested in his whereabouts. Liz had nothing to do with the theft, but Russian mobster Gen. Yasmani Svengrad (known as the Sturgeon General because he's the head of a caviar importing company) thinks the money belongs to him, and she's the key to getting it back. It's all extremely complicated, but with the help of Sgt. John LaMoia and Boldt's former lover police, psychologist Daphne Matthews, who is now living with LaMoia, Boldt hopes not only to solve the case but to protect his wife's reputation and keep his marriage from foundering. The difficulty is that Boldt's personal problems, which mount to near soap opera levels, tend to distract from the more interesting crime elements. Pearson's uneven writing too often veers into the mawkish when attempting to reveal Boldt's inner feelings ("She touched him once lightly on the arm as he opened the door. The tenderness of that gesture cut him to his core and he felt emotions ripple through him"). Pearson wisely eschews the sentimentalism as he builds to a climactic finale in which Boldt cleverly manipulates friend and foe alike to save Liz and serve justice. (Apr. 5) FYI: Pearson is a real go-getter with a number of new projects on tap. He's writing a prequel to Peter Pan with Dave Barry, scripting a pilot that he hopes to sell to Showtime, has completed a documentary for The Animal Planet and still has time to tour with writer/rockers the Rockbottom Remainders. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

"The latest Ridley Pearson book about Detective Lou Boldt is a fast-paced and exciting tale. Pearson has obviously done thorough and meticulous research into crime scenes and forensic science, creating a story any professional in the field would enjoy." (Donna J. Meade, Forensic Scientist II, Idaho State Police Forensic Services)

Library Journal

In Pearson's latest Detective Lou Boldt thriller, computer whiz David Hayes has embezzled $17 million from the bank where he worked and hidden it within the computer system. Now paroled for the crime, he wants to get the money and be free of all competing parties, including some utterly ruthless Russian Mafia types who will stop at nothing to get the loot. Years before, Hayes had an affair with Boldt's wife-now VP of systems at the bank-and he blackmails her into helping him recover the money. Though dedicated and skilled, Boldt and his team are human and fallible; Boldt must balance his jealousy as a husband with his professionalism as a detective. Pearson's novels are always well written, and he takes special care with richly drawn subordinate characters. Intriguing, exciting, and highly recommended for most popular fiction collections.-Robert Conroy, Warren, MI Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A massive, long-dormant case of embezzlement bobs to the surface, spelling trouble for Seattle Lt. Lou Boldt (The Art of Deception, 2002, etc.) and his banker wife and nonstop suspense for their fans. Back when Liz Boldt allowed computer wizard David Hayes to seduce her, she didn't bargain on the sequel: He looted WestCorp, the Seattle bank she worked for, of $17 million that nobody's been able to trace to this day. Seattle's finest don't know where the money went, how Hayes hid it, or even where it came from. But now that Hayes has been paroled after serving five years for fraud, the case is back to haunt the Boldts. First, Lou is called to a fresh crime scene when Danny Foreman, the old friend from the Washington Bureau of Investigation who'd pushed hardest to close the case, is stunned and doped (and Danny's troubles are far from over). Then Liz is confronted, first with Hayes's unwelcome request for help, then with sordid evidence that her affair with Hayes could go public at any moment. In short order the Boldts are squeezed by a bunch of brutal, blackmailing bad guys headlined by Sturgeon General Yasmani Svengrad, a mafiya-connected importer; Lou's colleagues on the force, all of whom seem to be reading from different playbooks; Liz's bosses at the bank, whose impending merger sets a deadline for Hayes to recover the missing $17 million; and the elusive and unreadable David Hayes. The result is an impossibly tangled skein of double, triple, and quadruple crosses, as Lou and Liz struggle to keep their threatened marriage afloat by figuring out exactly which of their many demanding contacts they can trust to help to do what-and when they'll need to change plans at a moment's notice.Breathlessly exciting stuff, though impossible to follow in any detail either as it's going down or after it's over.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940173773234
Publisher:	Brilliance Audio
Publication date:	05/16/2017
Series:	Boldt and Matthews Series , #9
Edition description:	Unabridged

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