Speaking in Tongues - Jeffery Deaver

 

I have to say that this book gave me something of a conundrum. On the one hand it gripped me and ensnared me in its web so much so that I simply had to find out what happened. It's not a whodunnit it's a whydunnit and to an extent I figured a potential reason but without the specifics. On the other hand, if I am honest, I found it to be an unpleasant story with a particularly nasty character. So there was no sense of well-being after having read it, no sense of having read a great book, so no sense, really, of enjoyment. It's not that I'm squeamish but it all seemed gratuitous, as if the story had been constructed around the violence and deceit, the narrative was a vehicle to showcase some loathsome behaviour. And I'm probably upsetting Jeffery Deaver fans everywhere! I did read Coffin Dancer and The Sleeping Doll many years ago and  I don't remember feeling like this but Speaking in Tongues left me underwhelmed. 

'Words are the most dangerous weapons on earth – and Tate Collier has a consummate skill with them. He can talk his way into anyone's heart, get them to do whatever he wants. This served him well when he used to defend death penalty cases in Virginia's Supreme Court; it also made him enemies.

Then his teenage daughter goes missing. All the signs are that she's run away. But Tate and his ex-wife, Bett, feel differently. When they set out in search of her, they soon discover that Megan is in the hands of a man, with no morals, and a gift for words, coercion and deceit, as great as Tate's.

And Megan is not the only one in danger…'