Deaver always delivers a fast moving, gripping and action packed story. Colton Shaw returns again and gets involved investigating a cult - of course he's doing this on his own...again!

Reward-seeker Colter Shaw has discovered two men accused of a despicable hate crime ... his pursuit come to a conclusion that leaves him wondering if he is to blame for what happened.

He finds himself involved with a cult representing itself as a grief support group. But is it truly it a community that consoles the bereaved? Or a dangerous cult with a growing body count?

Some people will do whatever it takes to keep their deep dark secrets from seeing the light of day. Colter is going undercover ... if he finds what he seeks, will the price be too high?

Although not one of the author's bests, it is full of twists and turns that kept me reading. There are multiple plots with multiple characters that I found to be confusing at times. Suspense begins on the very first page and maintains a high level throughout. Characters are deftly drawn. Although second in this series, it is easily read as a stand alone. However, I do recommend reading in order.

Many thanks to the author / PENGUIN GROUP Putnam /G.P. Putnam's Sons / Netgalley for the digital copy of this crime fiction. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

I guess maybe I should have read his first book, I didn't like the whole cult feel of this book.

Maybe it just wasn't for me.

This is the second book in the Colter Shaw series. A fan of the Lincoln Rhyme series, now I'm a fan of this series as well.

used to read Deaver all the time, so it was good to get back to his books. deaver writes alot of detail in his books, but he does it in a way as to not overload you, keeps the story flowing nicely.

***Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review***
I think I needed to read the first book in this series as this just did not keep my interest enough.

I loved this very much! The characters, the actions and even the plot itself! Very inspiring for my own book too!

I just couldn't get into this Deaver story. Usually, he grabs me right away and I can't put the book down. When I started The Goodbye Man, I immediately felt like I walked into the middle of a movie and that feeling never passed. I had problems following who this guy was, what his deal was, and what the heck was going on that I got frustrated and gave up halfway through.

It didn't live up to the Jeffery Deaver of the Lincoln Rhymes fame. Fell very, very short.

I received this book in exchange for my unbiased review. Thanks to Netgalley.com

It is a rare author who can transition from a much loved character and start a new series. Jeffrey Deaver is able to do this with panache and success. Colter Shaw witnesses a situation that just doesn’t seem right to him. Even though he is warned of the dangers of investigating cults he finds himself drawn into the middle of a little known but disturbing group. With his signature plot twists this book will keep the reader up late into the night hoping to figure out how this can resolve with colter coming out alive,

I did not read the first book in the series, and I think I would have connected to it more quickly if I had. That being said, it was a slow start for me. The initial case that Shaw is working on was timely due to the potentially racially motivated crime, but there wasn't anything mysterious or intriguing about it. That changed drastically, and I got hooked, once the cult storyline came in. The story was fast paced from there, and kept me up wanting to find out what happened next.

As the novel progressed, we learned more about Shaw's character and his drive to avenge his father. I was not as interested in that storyline either, but by the end, I felt ready to know more & will look out for the next book in the series!

The Goodbye Man is the second installment in the Colton Shaw series by veteran thriller author, Jeffrey Deaver. Shaw tracks missing persons for ransom, and is good at what he does. In this novel, Shaw is tracking two young men who were supposedly involved in a hate crime. Shaw easily finds the men, and learns from them that the crime was in self-defense. However, when Shaw calls the authorities to pick up the men, one of them immediately jumps off a cliff in an apparent suicide. Shaw wants to find out why, and was led to what he suspects is a cult under the guise of healing. Shaw pays the exorbitant price and becomes involved. Once he learns why this young man committed suicide, he works to prevent others.

Colton Shaw is definitely a different thriller character; while he is very likeable, he is also generous and usually ends up giving his bounty money to the victims. He has problems of his own, one being to find why his father was murdered, which is a sub-story in the novel. Deaver is an excellent writer, and does an outstanding job of developing Shaw as well as the other primary characters in the book. He is also a master storyteller, and is able to keep readers on the edge of their seats; suspense is building throughout this book, and it is very difficult to put down.

Deaver has obviously done his homework and has researched cults, and the cult in the story is very believable and absolutely fascinating. Deaver know how people react and uses his knowledge to rope his readers into his stories.

Deaver fans will want to pick up this book. Those who aren’t familiar with Deaver will also want to pick up this book, as well as the first in the series and Deaver’s bestselling Lincoln Rhyme series. Excellent.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

The problem is that I picked up this book after finishing another super good book about a religious cult leader. So, after that book, this one felt like a bit of a letdown unfortunately. It just moved too slowly for my liking and I never felt lost in its pages.

In this second book in the Colter Shaw series, Shaw is looking for two young men who may have been involved in a hate crime in Washington state. As a result of his search, he begins an investigation into a mysterious self-help organization. Is the group benign or sinister?

Loved loved this book! I hadn't read Deaver in a while, and am so glad I was fortunate enough to get an ARC of The Goodbye Man. I enjoy Colter Shaw the quirky reward seeking protagonist, and I enjoyed his foray into the cult world in this novel.
Mystery, action, human interest lovers will enjoy this and it's perfect for summer!

2.5 stars. I really like the main character of Colton Shaw. I had trouble with this one though because it was kind of slow, but mainly because I just really do not enjoy stories about religious cults.

The book started with a bang and pulled me right in. Like the first book, The Never Game, it starts in the middle of a tense and exciting scene. After playing out the scene, Deaver then backtracks and brings you up to date.

The book was fast-paced for about the first third to half of the story and then slows down for a bit once Colter has penetrated the possible cult. Then we get too much exposition, for my taste anyway, some introspection, and getting in touch with one's emotions. Then the pace picks up again, slows down again towards the end, and then one last bang Literally. I mostly liked it. That middle part was a little slow for me. It's kind of funny really that I didn't like the introverted part more since I'm such an introvert. Ah well. Also, I have some baggage where that particular setting is concerned so that may have affected things. In fact, Deaver did an excellent with is portrayal and managed to be fair in his depiction. Deaver pulls several twists during the story, most of which I really didn't see coming.

I do like Colter Shaw, and his many, many talents, including his habit of quantifying actions and events as risk percentages. He is, by upbringing and by choice, an outdoorsman, with all the skills that entails. He doesn't like being confined, not even to a schedule. I also like the way he makes his living; it's unusual in books. No idea about real life. But the work suits him, and it's fascinating to see Colter work and try to follow or anticipate his thinking. I usually fail. :D He's smart, clever, and always several steps ahead. He's compassionate, which lands him in trouble a few times; he's kind, but not a soft touch; he's stubborn and persistent; and he prefers action to just sitting around.

"The Goodbye Man" was solid entertainment. It did have slow parts but it was overall exciting and engrossing. I'm looking forward to book three, assuming there will be one.

Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons on May 12, 2020

Colter Shaw is a reward hunter, as opposed to a bounty hunter, but of course he turns down or gives away rewards because he’s just so darn good. Shaw starts the novel by tracking down a young man who has disappeared with a friend after being accused of participating in a shooting. Of course, the accusations are false, but before Shaw can prove their innocence, the young man’s friend commits suicide for no apparent reason.

Jeffery Deaver picks easy targets in The Goodbye Man and magnifies their evil to make sure the reader loathes them. Before the suicide, local law enforcement agents decide to murder the two young men simply because they are undesirable outsiders. They practically salivate at the idea of killing them. There are plenty of people in law enforcement who don’t deserve a badge, but killer cops aren’t usually as depraved as the ones depicted in the novel. Sure, Shaw is a good guy because he doesn't think that cops should commit murder, but there's a certain lack of subtlety in portraying villains as the worst people a reader can imagine.

To get to the bottom of the suicide, Shaw travels to the young man’s destination, which turns out to be a cult called The Osiris Foundation. Nobody likes cults, making it another easy target. Its founder, Master Eli, is David Koresh, Warren Jeffs, and Jim Jones rolled into one. Deaver wraps up the very worst tendencies of cults into one neat package, giving Shaw no choice but to infiltrate and destroy it.

That nobody else has discovered the cult’s malevolence is even more difficult to believe than the malevolence itself. Deaver tells us that the cult is secretive, but it needs members to sustain itself, so it can’t be all that secretive. Yet nobody notices that people who join the cult are victimized in ways that would surely be noticed by the outside world? I didn’t buy it.

Nor did I think that anyone would view Master Eli as anything but a joke. In just three weeks, his followers are so devoted to him that they are willing to sacrifice themselves because they believe his silly promise of a better future. All cult leaders are con men, but they succeed because they have charismatic appeal. Deaver didn’t make me believe that anyone would believe a single preposterous word that Eli utters.

On two occasions, cult enforcers physically abuse people where Shaw can watch. A cult that is trying to convince members that it offers the path to peace and serenity would hardly engage in such public displays of violence. Yeah, Shaw is not making his presence obvious on either occasion, but how convenient it is that Shaw happens to be in a place where he can see the violence going down? Writers who rely on improbable coincidence to advance a plot need to try harder.

Oh, and for all the security measures the cult takes, there is an unguarded gate that Shaw happens to find, giving himself easy egress and ingress to the compound. Too convenient? Yeah, just a bit.

Some aspects of The Goodbye Man are interesting, or at least amusing. Master Eli exaggerates his accomplishments, talks about fake news, encourages his followers to chant slogans and attack anyone who questions him, and is a “raging narcissist.” He reminded me quite a lot of Master Donald, on whom I am guessing he was modeled. Shaw pretty quickly sees through the Foundation’s self-help scam, but one of the therapists who engages Shaw gets him to take a deep dive into his real issues (involving his unresolved feelings of guilt about his absent brother), adding a moment of unexpected depth to a fairly simple plot. None of that is quite enough to earn a recommendation.

I expected The Goodbye Man to earn a guarded recommendation until the final chapters — maybe the last quarter of the book — went it rolled completely off the rails. Parts of the story that are supposed to be touching are too contrived to have an emotional impact. Apart from a weak plot, Shaw has developed all the personality of a comatose actuary. Shaw's habit of following his father’s tedious rules and assigning arbitrary percentages of success to his action plans are supposed to be interesting traits, but they only makes him annoying.

About half of last 50 pages weave in an ongoing story about a conspiracy that Shaw’s father was trying to unravel. That storyline began in the first novel and will probably unfold over several books. The conspiracy seems almost as ludicrous as the Osiris Foundation’s scheme. It doesn’t encourage me to believe that the next installments will be worth reading. That’s disappointing, since I have generally enjoyed Deaver’s Lincoln Rhyme books.

Deaver performs all the thriller writer tricks to make the novel seem to move quickly — short chapters, lots of white space — but the book loses momentum as it nears the end. I enjoyed the first Shaw novel (The Never Game) but this one is a step down.

"Never assume you're safe."

3.5 stars

The Goodbye Man is an action-packed thriller about an enigmatic “reward-seeker” whose investigation into a hate-crime brings him into the crosshairs of a powerful cult.

Colter Shaw, a reward-seeker, finds himself going undercover in a dangerous cult to save some of its members. What he discovers about this mysterious organization leads him into extreme danger and darkness.

There are three mysteries packed into this novel: that of the hate-crime, the ongoings of the cult, and the death of Colter’s father. All three were compelling in different ways, although the hate-crime mystery wasn’t fully fleshed out. All three mysteries are intricately plotted and link together, but some elements came together a little too easily.

Colter’s character possesses some unique abilities. I missed the first book in this series, and I think it would have helped had I read it before reading The Goodbye Man. Plenty of background is given on Colter, but the whole time I was reading I felt like I was missing something. At the same time, I found his character to be compelling, and I am interested in filling in the questions I have about his background.

The first 20% was a bit rough, as I wasn’t able to fully connect with Colter or the various mysteries. It wasn’t until he entered the cult that I found myself unable to put this book down. Deaver always does a ton of research, and his investigation of cults is apparent. I have only read a few Deaver books (those in the Lincoln Rhyme series), and this one definitely has a different feel--it's not as gruesome or complex. Overall, I enjoyed my introduction to Colter Shaw, and plan on catching up on this series soon!

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Penguin Group in exchange for an honest review.

Colter Shaw feels responsible for a pursuit gone wrong and sets out to find out what started the whole episode.

Colter Shaw is a bumbling idiot (that may be a bit strong but still) with a heart of gold and I adore him. Somehow he figures everything out but the laughs he gives me along the way are worth the read in and of itself but the mystery of what is happening is a good read as well.

Shaw reminds me of Myron Bolitar from Harlan Coben’s series. There is humor in the way that Shaw does everything and yet he comes up with the answers.

This series is great for a humorous read with a bit of mystery and who-dun-it. A great beach read.