John Pellam, scouting locations for a new film in a small town in Missouri, inadvertently witnesses a double homicide and some serious gunplay that left a cop paralyzed. He didn't see the guy who ordered the killings, but the police don't believe him. The U.S. attorney who thinks he knows who was behind the murders has bet his career on Pellam's identification of a criminal the feds have been trying to nail for years. They'll do anything to get Pellam's cooperation, including threatening his new girlfriend, shutting down the movie, and keeping Pellam from inking a deal to get his own film made. That project is Pellam's ticket back to the top of the heap in Hollywood, a perch he fell off of when he supplied the drugs that killed his best friend. The cops want Pellam's testimony, the mob boss wants him permanently silenced, and the film's director wants him to finish the job he's been paid to do. But first Pellam has to find his way out of the traps they've all set for him, and he does it with style, wit, and a self-deprecating charm that makes him a hero to everyone--well, almost everyone.

William Jefferies, who usually writes under the better-known nom de plume of Jeffery Deaver, has a couple of other Location Scout mysteries to his name (Shallow Graves, Hell's Kitchen). Pocket Books has reissued them as Deaver titles ("writing as William Jefferies"), but regardless of their provenance, they feature topnotch writing, snappy dialogue, solid pacing, and excellent characterization. Bloody River Blues was overlooked by Deaver's fans when it first came out eight years ago. Now that the publisher has cleared up the mystery of who actually wrote it, it ought to get the attention it deserves. --Jane Adams

Jeffery Deaver is the New York Times bestselling author of The Empty Chair and The Devil's Teardrop. Here his trademark "ticking-bomb suspense" (People) explodes off the page in another heart-stopping thriller.

Hollywood location scout John Pellam thought the scenic backwater town of Maddox, Missouri, would be the perfect site for an upcoming Bonnie and Clyde-style film. But after real bullets leave two people dead and one cop paralyzed, he's more sought after than the Barrow Gang. Pellam had unwittingly wandered onto the crime scene just minutes before the brutal hits. Now the feds and local police want him to talk. Mob enforcers want him silenced. And a mysterious blonde just wants him. Trapped in a town full of sinister secrets and deadly deceptions, Pellam fears that death will imitate art, as the film shoot -- and his life -- race toward a breathtakingly bloody climax.

Bloody River Blues by Jeffery Deaver gives the reader what they expect from a Deaver novel. There are lots of suspects and motives to sort out and though some seem a little "ho, hum" in the end it all matters. The book has a good pace, but you can put it down and pick it up again when you have time to read, unlike some of Deaver's work that cost you sleep because you can't put them down.

I'm a huge Jeffery Deaver fan and until this book had never read one of his tomes that I didn't absolutely love. Bloody River Blues was anything but spectacular in my opinion and it was a struggle to even get to the end.

Character development was fair but not the usual style I've come to enjoy from Deaver. I never really knew John Pellam like an intimate friend and was only given tidbits of information about him. Along the way a few more scraps were thrown out but most seemed unimportant. Subcharacters were also underdeveloped - even the villain was so underdeveloped that when the identity was known it was anticlimactic. One of my favorite characters was the paralyzed cop but his story was often short changed - his doctor could have been developed to give so much more to the story but she never was and it left me lacking enthusiasm for the storyline. And his chanting, nutsy wife could have been fun but again she was almost mentioned in passing and nothing more said.

The main plot was fair but not something that would grab the reader and not let go. In fact, I kept putting this book down and it was difficult to muddle my way through it. The subplots were tossed in with no clear reason behind them. For example, the subplot that has John Pellam trying to sell his own movie script so he can make it into a film himself had me scratching my head and saying, "So what!" I really didn't care and didn't see what relevance it had in the big picture. The other subplots were similar and left me wondering why they took up page space.

Overall this book was just a tad below average but for a Jeffery Deaver book to even be average is a very unusual thing. His books usually grab me from the beginning and I lose sleep trying to finish them. If anything, BLOODY RIVER BLUES put me to sleep! I'd definitely skip this one and read anything else by Deaver.

As many books the beginning of this one is excellent. But as you go over and over it gets boring and boring. The book has four stories that at the end will meet and all of them are stark boring. And at the end... just skip it. Better'd be if you skip this book.

i've been enjoying these early thrillers from Deaver a lot. (especially his RUNE series) this one is no exception. Its not exactly high-brow, but its a fast, entertaining read, as all his early thrillers have so far been. They have good plots, which are not very complex, and are easy to get your head around, they are also full of twists, as is the norm with Deaver.

however, this one is a tiny bit disappoinging, because the cahracters are not as fleshed out as he is capable of.

but, the writing is very good once again, the plot sustains interest, its a quick and enjoyable read, and is reccomended to all fans of Jeffery Deaver.

This book just sucks you in on the life of Pellam, a scout for a film company. He was a witness to a shooting that he wishes he never witnessed.