The Never Game Audiobook By Jeffery Deaver cover art

The Never Game

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The Never Game

By: Jeffery Deaver
Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith
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A New York Times Book Review Top 10 Crime Novel of the Year

From the best-selling and award-winning master of suspense, the first novel in a thrilling new series, introducing Colter Shaw.

"You have been abandoned."

A young woman has gone missing in Silicon Valley, and her father has hired Colter Shaw to find her. The son of a survivalist family, Shaw is an expert tracker. Now, he makes a living as a "reward seeker", traveling the country to help police solve crimes and private citizens locate missing persons. But what seems a simple investigation quickly thrusts him into the dark heart of America's tech hub and the cutthroat billion-dollar video-gaming industry.

"Escape if you can."

When another victim is kidnapped, the clues point to one video game with a troubled past - The Whispering Man. In that game, the player has to survive after being abandoned in an inhospitable setting with five random objects. Is a madman bringing the game to life?

"Or die with dignity."

Shaw finds himself caught in a cat and mouse game, risking his own life to save the victims even as he pursues the kidnapper across both Silicon Valley and the dark net. Encountering eccentric game designers, trigger-happy gamers, and ruthless tech titans, he soon learns he isn't the only one on the hunt: Someone is on his trail and closing fast.

The Never Game proves once more why "Deaver is a genius when it comes to manipulation and deception" (Associated Press).

©2019 Jeffery Deaver (P)2019 Penguin Audio Crime Thrillers Mystery Suspense Thriller & Suspense Exciting
About the Creator - Jeffery Deaver

About the Creator

Jeffery Deaver is an international number-one bestselling author. His books are sold in 150 countries and have been translated into 25 languages. He has served two terms as president of Mystery Writers of America, and was recently named a Grand Master of MWA, whose ranks include Agatha Christie, Ellery Queen, Mary Higgins Clark, and Walter Mosley.
The author of 43 novels, three collections of short stories and a nonfiction law book, and a lyricist of a country-western album, he’s received or been shortlisted for dozens of awards. His The Bodies Left Behind was named Novel of the Year by the International Thriller Writers, and his Lincoln Rhyme thriller, The Broken Window, and a stand-alone, Edge, were also nominated for that prize. The Garden of Beasts won the Steel Dagger from the Crime Writers Association in England. He’s also been nominated for eight Edgar Awards by the MWA.
Deaver has been honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention, Strand Magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Raymond Chandler Lifetime Achievement Award in Italy
Deaver's most recent works are Hunting Time, a Colter Shaw novel, and The Broken Doll, a four-story collection from Amazon Original Stories. His Shaw novel, The Never Game, will be a CBS Prime-time series later this year.
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Intriguing Plot Twists • Unique Protagonist • Distinctive Male Voices • Well-developed Characters • Engaging Mystery
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Great story & narrator. I hope JD writes more with Colter Shaw. I'm planning on listening to the Goodbye Man.

Gr8 listen

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This author is mixed for me and l am not compiled to buy his work unless l am a big fan of the narrator. The story was several hours too long as the author established our hero’s background, good but that could have been spread out over the books to come. This diluted the mystery and at times it got lost. I am a fan of Mr Griffith, see the l Team series he reads. Well done
See the 3 star reviews of this story and they pretty much sum up my misgivings.
Once again, Shelly’s review is better than the story. This is two in a row for me!

Two for One, Story and Credit

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story was good. I like how they explored more of the character. The story was good. it kept you guessing who the bad guy was

its different from the show but I like it

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As a fan of the CBS Television series, I decided to give the first Colter Shaw novel a listen. There are a few distinct differences most notably with Colter moving around in a Winnebago with an attached motorcycle as his wheels, instead the $100K plus Airstream pulled by a loaded GMC truck in the TV series. Of course, that's not unexpected with today's entertainment industry thinking they know better than an established written series. However, other than that, the core character of Colter Shaw comes across very similar to the role played by Justin Hartley in the TV series. There is a reference in the novel to Shaw not smiling much which Hartley follows in the series. Well done.

The novel gives us more background on Colter than the TV series helping us understand his personality and his skills as a tracker. There are questions regarding the mystery of his father's death which is purposely not explained and certainly is designed to be a hook for the continuance of the series. In this outing, we get Colter tracking down an missing girl and getting deeply involved in the dark side of the video game industry. It appears that a killer is mimicking the plot of a popular game.

Overall, I found the novel an entertaining listen. As a narrator, Kaleo Griffith did a good job, but there was nothing really memorable with his style compared to the likes of Ray Porter, Scott Brick, or Steven Weber. The listen was entertaining enough for me to move on to the next in the series.

The Tracker Novel vs The TV Series

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The story did not hold my attention. I was confused about the purpose of the story. Conclusion was not tied up as I would like. The end seemed like a clumsy lead in to another story.

Not as good as I had hoped.

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Enjoyed listening to this book...very much! I hope there will be a sequel... thank you.

Excellent Dever book...

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I thought this was a very enjoyable listen and wanted it to keep going when it ended. I would get another by this author

didnt want it to end

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It was a good story, nice introduction to a new character. Reminded me vaguely of the Travis McGee series, but only in the general sense. Colter Shaw is intelligent, but not cold, discerning, but not all- knowing. The Never Game is plotted well, with the search for a kidnap victim gradually escalating to a search for a killer. The secondary characters have depth too, which keeps you interested even in quieter moments. The underlying mystery about Shaw's father keeps you interested without distracting from the immediate plot. Looking forward to reading the next novel.

A Different Kind of Detective

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If you like the idea of tracking people physically, much like the Native Americans of old, this is a great read.

Narrator is excellent.

Track down this title, it’s great!

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I'm excited about this new series. I think the protagonist is very interesting. He's not the typical lawyer or cop solving crimes. There are many layers to him and it will be interesting to learn about him in the future.

very interesting protagonist

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