The Bodies Left Behind Reviews

Best Thriller Of The Year award
—International Thriller Writers Organization

“After stumbling onto a grisly murder, Deputy Brynn McKenzie flees into the Wisconsin woods with killers on her trail. Movie Pitch: Fargo meets The Searchers. Lowdown: The battle of wits between Brynn and the hitman gets so intimate it’s almost romantic. A-”
— Entertainment Weekly

“The place: A secluded house in a forest in the boonies of Wisconsin during the off-season. The case: A young lawyer working on a sensitive union case and her social worker husband are getting away from it all for the weekend when two men, faces covered in mesh, burst into the house. The social worker begs: “Look, you can have whatever you want. We’ve got a Mercedes outside. I’ll get the keys.” His pleas do no good, but his one-word 911 call alerts a policewoman. Food pairing: Bratwurst and beer. Brings to mind: An endlessly twisty episode of Law & Order. The verdict: Jeffery Deaver plays gotcha with readers so many times you begin to anticipate his tricks, but the biggest twist of all, you’ll never see coming. Very engrossing story.”
— Fort Worth Star-Telegram

“What’s this? A Jeffery Deaver novel with no mad-dog serial killer and no state-of-the-art technology to track his moves? Pinch me. But THE BODIES LEFT BEHIND is no dream, only a different kind of nightmare — the elemental one of being hunted down in the wild like an animal. Brynn McKenzie, a sheriff’s deputy in rugged Kennesha County, Wis., lands in this trap when she finds a high-­powered lawyer and her social-worker husband shot to death in their isolated vacation house and their terrified guest, a chic city dweller named Michelle, cowering in the woods in her spike-heeled boots. Saddled with Michelle (“I’m really an actress”), Brynn is at a big disadvantage against two heavily armed hit men, hellbent on eliminating the only witness to the slaughter. Yet the resourceful deputy manages to make this a dead-even match, winning the creepy admiration of the lead killer. The meticulously structured plot moves back and forth between hunter and hunted, covering a big stretch of wild country. But although some of the near-miss encounters seem arbitrary, this is still a thrill-a-minute wilder­ness adventure.”
— New York Times