Deeper than the Dead

by: Tami Hoag
Grade: A-
Genre: Suspense, with a touch of romance

California, 1985

School being the happy, wholesome place it is Tommy and Wendy find themselves cutting through the park on the way home trying to escape classroom bullies. The experience takes an even darker turn when as they run they trip over a body.

That small trip lands them, the bullies and teacher Anne Navarre into a whirlwind of problems. The only port in the growing storm seems to be Vince Leone, an FBI investigator who helped pioneer the technique known as profiling. As Vince works with a wary police department the killer escalates his game, seeming to remain always one step ahead of them. With clues that seem to lead nowhere and time running out, Vince finds himself fighting his own demons to outsmart a madman with the facade of an angel.

This book is Tami Hoag at her absolute best. From the moment Tommy and Wendy burst onto the scene until that last disturbing image on the ferry this book sucks you in. Every character is utilized to paint a picture of just how disturbing crime can be and how heinous crimes can affect much more than just the life of the person taken. We are with Tommy and Wendy as their innocent escape through the park and gruesome find reveal and widen the cracks in the seemingly perfect lives of the towns people. It isn't just that everyone looks at their neighbor with increased suspicion but the little cracks in family lives suddenly loom large and people who were teetering on edges find themselves falling into very deep, very dark abysses.
What's more, Hoag paints clear, concise pictures of who each character is and has you caring for far more than just the leads. We can feel for Wendy's mom, Sara, who remains very much on the periphery of the story even as her life begins to slowly disintegrate. And we can feel for Jane Thomas, as something she designed for good suddenly becomes the plaything of someone truly vile. I especially liked the character of Fran, who brought some much needed laughter to what could have been an extremely dark book. Because this is a mystery, and a lot of the fun of such a book is peeling back the layers for yourself, I don't want to get into the plot of the story too much. Rest assured, Hoag handles it superbly, spinning her story with skill and doling information out as we need it and in the manner most likely to thrill and delight.

With so much gushing you might wonder why the minus. In the end, grading is a personal thing and I am giving the minus for a personal reason: I did not like at all the May-September romance. I would rather Anne have been alone than wind up in that particular relationship. She already has an elderly, cantankerous, pain in the behind father to deal with. She has already set herself up as a caregiver for her students. I could easily see her ten, fifteen years down the road trying to care for yet another aging loved one while trying to hold a family together single handedly. The health of the person involved and the peculiar issues they were going through didn't help. That aspect of the book felt superfluous and sad, so I gave it a minus. Still, this is a small part of the story, so don't let it keep you from picking this gem up.

Tea: Anything warm and comforting. You are going to want that comfort.