My first Jeffrey Deaver and not my last by any means. I think The Twelfth Card is the best detective construction I have ever read. Dean Koontz's Velocity has won my best detective characterisation ever, you might remember.

The book begins when a young student, Geneva, from Harlem is subjected to what would have been a brutal murder if she hadn't been wise enough to anticipate what was about to happen to her. All she was doing was reading about an ancestor of hers.

Geneva then fills the rest of the 394 pages of this book as this story goes round and round and in the end turns full circle. Read it and you will see what I mean.

The major detective is an Ironside character: wheel chair bound but an excellent detective. Detective Rhyme is systematic and thorough and drives the entire investigation.

What I found so good about this story is the way that Deaver wove the story and developed the characters around that story. There are at least four excellent aspects to the story and each of them could represent a book in themselves. As each story unfolds, we get to the stage where we believe that the book will end when it is resolved. However, when that happens there are still many pages still to go and so it's clear that there is much more to go.

A psychopathic former prison executioner living with a family who know nothing about his other life goes on the hunt for Geneva and does so in a way that would have had disastrous consquences had he not come up against Rhyme. I thought this part of the plot was especially clever and well developed. Thompson Boyd is a horrible character and even shot his own girlfriend in the leg as he tried to provide himself with a diversion to escape the clutches! Happily he failed and was caught by a girl: that must have irked him no end although Deaver didn't make anything of that aspect once he'd done it!

Another recidivist turns out to be Geneva's father and that is something that could not only have appeared here but it could be part of an East Enders story line. A good element of the story and it's developed really well: in an apparently sinister way that opens up and gives us some hope for the future of humanity in the end! You might not agree with my views on that ... read the book and see what you think.

An Arabian gentleman is blown to bits: terrorist or diversion? I'm saying no more. Read the book!

Finally, the banker comes into the story towards the end and he provides the denoument and closes the circle. Since this is so central to the plot I won't say any more about that aspect but it provides one of two aspects of the happy ever after aspect of the book.

You might also like to read the aspects relating to the present and the future of the African American. There are also aspects of the story that include the place of women in society: Geneva's best friend Keesha says goodbye to her near the end of the book. What we are left to consider is that Keesha is leaving Geneva carrying the child of a gangsta type from school, Kevin, whom Geneva refused to help in a maths exam. Kevin told Keesha to leave Geneva and live with him ... Geneva tells Keesha she can have an abortion and she should work for her future ...

One aspect of this story that some will love and some will worry over: the language of the street. Gangsta talk and a fair amount of it. The worrying aspect of such talk is that at times slack talk turns horrible as violence and death arrive in the twinkling of an eye.

There is so much more to this book than I have squeezed in here, of course; and I fo heartily recommend it. Five stars out of five without a doubt.

Oh! What's the Twelfth Card in the title ... well, it's a Tarot card as you might anticipate but why is it important? Read the book!

Duncan Williamson
26 March 2006