Review of Deeper than the Dead by Tami Hoag

Deeper than the Dead

Tami Hoag

Penguin Group

532 pages (paperback)

The Queen of Thriller/Mystery hits another home run.

Set in 1985 three of Anne Navarre’s 5^th grade students stumble, literally over a dead body of a woman in the woods. Sheriffs detective Tony Mendez and his mentor groundbreaking FBI profiler Vince Leone are thinking serial killer with two similar murder/tortures and one missing woman, they will have to ferret out the monster in this idyllic community with the help of Anne. Anne and Vince will also have to deal with the attraction they feel for each other while keeping safe.

Okay the first thing I have to admit is that I read this when it first came out a year ago, why, because I’m a huge Tami Hoag fan from way back when she wrote strictly romance all the way through to present and her darker and more meatier reads. So I thought I’d just skim through the pages until I remembered enough to write a review, well guess what. I couldn’t put it down, I just kept telling myself I’ll just read a little bit more and so on and so forth until I finished the 532 pages in the paperback edition. Why did I find my self re-reading it, me who never re-reads, well it’s my pleasure to tell you.

Tami Hoag has an incredible way with words they simply flow like melted butter so smooth that one page effortlessly merges with the next. The plot is very effective, in this 24/7 information overloaded society she takes us back to 1985 where disco is in and cell phones are the size of suitcases and DNA used in crime detection is still a while away. She takes us back to the infancy of FBI profiling and good old fashioned police work. Her characters really make the novel, her good guys will make you root for them and her bad boys will make you cringe and you won’t find out the identity of the monster until she wants you to. Her main protagonists Anne and Vince are an unlikely couple, she in her mid-twenties and he is his late forties but the romance works and works well and becomes an integrated part of the plot.

If you’ve loved Tami for years like me or if you’ve never given her a try either way you won’t be sorry you picked up this novel. If you love crime drama mixed with a great love story this is for you. If you’re the adrenaline junkie and need a novel that speeds up your pulse and makes your heart race look no farther. And when you’re done with this pick up the sequel due out in December 2010 Secrets to the Grave starring all the same people you got to know from Deeper than the Dead.