Aptly named collection of short stories

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	• Twisted Jeffery Deaver Hodder & Stoughton Ltd, 2004 - 416 pages average customer review:based on 34 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Exciting even as a textbook at school

As someone who have been teaching English at college in Japan for some time, I was always seeking for a good "authentic" material, which is at the same time instructive and entertaining. This book turned to nicely meet both criteria in the classroom with vibrant colloquial expressions and intriguing plot lines. Unlike other textbook materials accompanied by ubiquitous problems and exercises, Twisted made an instant hit among the students although not without big challenges. For students unfamiliar with American crime novels, the sheer volume of size was a big barrier. Plus cultural and social dimentions were a stumblig block as well. For how much familiar are the expressions or names to non natives like us: COPS, Roseanne, HBO, Give him one-way ticket..., burning bushes, Victoria's Secret and so on. Especially the "yellow diamond" in "The Fall Guy" was the hardest nut to crack. The students and I assumed it to be some precious stone featured in a song of Michael Bolton, which, according to our native colleague turned to be a mere road sign. Anyway based upon the intensity of my students' attitude, I seem not to have mistaken the choice of textbook this semester and I will certainly encourage to read further into a Lincoln Rhyme feature for their summer break fun.

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Can't guess the outcome

This book was absolutely fantastic. It left me breathless and longing for more. The stories were intricately plotted and no matter how hard I tried, I could never guess the outcome.

What I loved best was that it was a collection of short stories. I could, in my down time, read a story and then get on with my day. Or, if I am in the middle of a book which I am laboring to get through (will never leave a book unfinished), I can pick up this book to get me all excited and motivated again.

Again, this book is a wonderful book. Well done Mr. Deaver.

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Twisted Could Use a Few More Twists

Unfortunately, the main flaw of this book is that most of the stories are nearly identical. I'd say that 75% of them deal with a husband or wife planning to kill their spouse, and then the tables get turned and the good guy ends up being the bad guy. Also, the characters from each story are so similar that they all blend together. They're all middle-class suburban WASPs without much personality, and no real reason to care about any of them. The stories themselves aren't bad, but they sure aren't great, either. There are one or two stand-outs which truly did surprise me at the end, but with the other stories I found myself either knowing the plot twist long in advance or just not caring about what happened to any of the characters. This is one of those so-so books which you can read on the plane or at the beach and then forget about.

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Aptly named collection of short stories

The short story format isn't very popular these days, with the exception of contributions to "Ellery Queen" and "Alfred Hitchcock's Mysteries" magazines, both of whom published these stories before they were collected for this book.
Deaver is a master of crime novels, with beaucoups of books under his belt, the most famous being the Lincoln Rhyme series, who makes an appearance in a Christmas twisted tale here.
Of course, the catch is to try to figure out the classic whodunnit, but Deaver doesn't make it easy. He isn't afraid to leave out certain clues or mislead us far away from the actual crime. Indeed, as he states in his forward to the sequel "More Twisted", which is just as good, he revels in the magician's tactics of making you watch the left hand while the right hand does all the dirty work.
Some characters get what they have coming to them, most don't, but it's still a great read because Deaver does his research homework brilliantly. He is one of the smartest writers out there, and could be a forensics expert or a detective as good as his character Lincoln Rhyme. But his imagination is his trump card, and the stories hold up well after repeated visits because of it.
I compare this work to the ultra-classic short story compilation of Kurt Vonnegut's, "Welcome To The Monkey House". While Vonnegut didn't do much crime stories as such, if any, he did have a vivid eye for detail and character development, which Deaver also possesses.
Short stories could become a lost art, but as long as Deaver can keep us interested, it still survives.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

New York Times bestselling author Jeffery Deaver has long thrilled fans with tales of masterful villains and their nefarious ways, and the brilliant minds who bring them to justice. Now the author of the Lincoln Rhyme series has collected for the first time his award-winning, spine-tingling stories of suspense -- stories that will widen your eyes and stretch your imagination.

A beautiful woman goes to extremes to rid herself of her stalker; a daughter begs her father not to go fishing in an area where there have been a series of brutal killings; a contemporary of the playwright William Shakespeare vows to avenge his family's ruin; and Jeffery Deaver's most beloved character, criminalist Lincoln Rhyme, is back to solve a chilling Christmastime disappearance.

Diverse, provocative, eerie and inspired, this collection of Jeffery Deaver's best stories exhibits the amazing range and signature plot twists that have earned him the title "master of ticking-bomb suspense" (People). With nods to O. Henry and Edgar Allan Poe, these beautifully crafted pieces, never before compiled in one volume, pulse with subtle intrigue and Deaver's incomparable imagination.

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