About book The Dead Man (Jack Davis Mystery, #2). (2011)
This is the story of Jack Davis, a former FBI agent, who is looking into the deaths of two, then three people that are involved in a dream study. Jack is also having to deal with an unexpected landlady, a girlfriend who's not thrilled with the job, repercussions from his daughters death and of course his disability which causes his body to spasm uncontrollably - especially when his body and mind are stressed. I suspected from the beginning who the killer was and normally that would make me give a book a one or two star but in this case the the author did such a good job of writing I wanted to read anyway - mostly to find out why the killer did it. A good story and I will read the first in the series. I'm not a middle-aged ex-FBI agent with an odd medical condition. That much is obvious. But several chapters into The Dead Man, I found myself viewing the world through the eyes of Jack Davis and internalizing his life experiences, a tribute to Joel Goldman's remarkable talent for writing in the first-person.The story opens in 1959 at the scene of a ghastly murder that remains unsolved to this day. Billionaire Milo Harper, of the Harper Institute of the Mind, hires Jack to investigate a series of deaths involving participants in his lucid dreaming research. Seems their dreams may have come true -- and that's not good for the institute. Old wounds are reopened as Jack's past becomes part of the mystery and the death toll mounts.Forty-one year-old Harper, fighting a hopeless battle against Alzheimer's disease, has a limited amount of time to unravel the mysteries of the mind that plague him. Jack, with the FBI hot on his own heels, and his physical condition exacerbated by stress, must push himself to the very limits of endurance. An unlikely pair, often at cross-purposes, who must work against time to put the past to rest.Not simply a serial murder story, The Dead Man delves deeply into the human psyche -- and not necessarily just that of the murderer. A peek into Jack Davis' own psyche reveals unimaginable sorrow and regret. You just want him to get this right.I had a hunch who was responsible for the murders about half way through the book, but the ending caught me completely off-guard as the hows and whys of it all become clear in the stunning -- and unsettling -- conclusion. I suspect that was the author's intention all along.As much trouble I had putting the book down each night, I will have just as much trouble getting out of Jack Davis' head. The Dead Man is a great read!
Do You like book The Dead Man (Jack Davis Mystery, #2). (2011)?
Good book, good series, looking forward to more.
—maya
These are great murder mysteries
—Phillycheesesteak
