The Never Game

By: Jeffery Deaver

Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith

The first installment in Jeffery Deaver’s Colter Shaw series—the inspiration for the upcoming CBS original series TRACKER starring Justin Hartley!

The son of a survivalist family, Colter Shaw is an expert tracker. Now he makes a living as a “reward seeker,” traveling the country to help police solve crimes and locate missing persons for private citizens.

“You’ve been abandoned. Escape if you can. Or die with dignity.”

Hired by the father of a young woman who has gone missing in Silicon Valley, Shaw's search takes him into the dark heart of America’s cutthroat billion-dollar video-game industry. When another person goes missing, Shaw must ask: Is a madman bringing a twisted video game to life?

Encountering eccentric designers, trigger-happy gamers, and ruthless tech titans, Shaw soon learns that he isn't the only one on the hunt: someone is on his trail and closing fast....

Named a Crime Novel of the Year by The New York Times Book Review, The Never Game proves once more why “Deaver is a genius when it comes to manipulation and deception” (Associated Press).






CBS, CBS Eye Design, and related logos are trademarks of CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license.
TRACKER is a trademark of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. Used under license.

Gr8 listen

Great story & narrator. I hope JD writes more with Colter Shaw. I'm planning on listening to the Goodbye Man.

Two for One, Story and Credit

This author is mixed for me and l am not compiled to buy his work unless l am a big fan of the narrator. The story was several hours too long as the author established our hero’s background, good but that could have been spread out over the books to come. This diluted the mystery and at times it got lost. I am a fan of Mr Griffith, see the l Team series he reads. Well done
See the 3 star reviews of this story and they pretty much sum up my misgivings.
Once again, Shelly’s review is better than the story. This is two in a row for me!

its different from the show but I like it

story was good. I like how they explored more of the character. The story was good. it kept you guessing who the bad guy was

The Tracker Novel vs The TV Series

As a fan of the CBS Television series, I decided to give the first Colter Shaw novel a listen. There are a few distinct differences most notably with Colter moving around in a Winnebago with an attached motorcycle as his wheels, instead the $100K plus Airstream pulled by a loaded GMC truck in the TV series. Of course, that's not unexpected with today's entertainment industry thinking they know better than an established written series. However, other than that, the core character of Colter Shaw comes across very similar to the role played by Justin Hartley in the TV series. There is a reference in the novel to Shaw not smiling much which Hartley follows in the series. Well done.

The novel gives us more background on Colter than the TV series helping us understand his personality and his skills as a tracker. There are questions regarding the mystery of his father's death which is purposely not explained and certainly is designed to be a hook for the continuance of the series. In this outing, we get Colter tracking down an missing girl and getting deeply involved in the dark side of the video game industry. It appears that a killer is mimicking the plot of a popular game.

Overall, I found the novel an entertaining listen. As a narrator, Kaleo Griffith did a good job, but there was nothing really memorable with his style compared to the likes of Ray Porter, Scott Brick, or Steven Weber. The listen was entertaining enough for me to move on to the next in the series.

Not as good as I had hoped.

The story did not hold my attention. I was confused about the purpose of the story. Conclusion was not tied up as I would like. The end seemed like a clumsy lead in to another story.