The October List Reviews
“Deaver sucks you into a whirlwind reverse-chronology tour of Gabriela’s nightmare weekend… The conceit of a tale unrolling backward in time initially seems daunting, but it’s not so different from the way lots of detective stories—or for that matter lots of Ibsen plays—unfold, and Deaver dispenses expository bits and cliffhangers with a mastery that’ll make you smile even more broadly after you realize how thoroughly you’ve been hoodwinked. Perhaps the cleverest of all Deaver’s exceptionally clever thrillers. If you’ve ever wished you could take the film Memento to the beach, here’s your chance.”
— Kirkus starred review
“Thriller Award–winner Deaver delivers a clever, demanding stand-alone that moves backward in time over the span of a three-day weekend, from Sunday evening to early Friday morning. …This is brilliant craftsmanship in a vastly entertaining package.”
— Publishers Weekly starred review
“Jeffery Deaver’s most fiendish thriller ever. …The reader is never lied to in Deaver’s brilliant shell game, merely misdirected, and the best part of this trick is that despite being in on the game, we continue to make false assumptions. …a truly unnerving exercise is deception.”
— New York Times
“Don’t skip ahead to the beginning and spoil the fun that’s guaranteed for anyone interested in a thriller that forces readers to use their brains in a creative way. Deaver is a master of manipulation and “The October List” is a small but powerful book.”
— The Associated Press
“Reading the novel is something of an act of faith: At the end of the first (or last, depending on one’s point of view) chapter, it seems that Deaver will have to supply a book-ending coda, or, worse, reduce the book to a Sopranos-style ending. But Deaver wraps the novel up with breathtaking success.”
— Columbus Dispatch
