The Dead Man
book 2 of the Jack Davis series
by Joel Goldman

The Dead Man is the second book of Goldman’s Jack Davis series and is written in the first-person point of view and Goldman does a wonderful job of allowing his readers to delve into the mind of his protagonist Jack Davis. The book opens with a gruesome double-murder set in December of 1959. A sheriff arrives on the scene in time to find a man covered in blood clutching a little girl to him. The girl is Maggie Brennan and the blood covered male is her uncle. Little Maggie had just witnessed a man killing her parents and only barely managed to escape herself. The case was unsolved and the culprits were never caught.

The scene changes again and the readers are given the chance to see the lone survivor, Maggie Brennan, in the present time. Sixty years later, Maggie does not seem to have gotten over the murder of her parents. She dreams of a man who has come to finish what he started. And yet, after awakening from her nightmare she wonders why it is so easy to kill yet hard to die. The thought sends a shiver down the reader’s spine and delivers a hint of suspense and foreshadowing.

Flash forward to the present day; Jack Davis is a former FBI agent who was let go by the bureau as he suffers from a movement disorder, the cause and cure of which is unknown, that gives him chronic shakes which makes him no longer fit for duty. Davis’ friend, Simon Alexander, however has a job that he thinks he’s perfect for.

The Harper Institute of the Mind, owned and run by billionaire Milo Harper, is primarily aiming to find a cure for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson disease. In the process, the institute is running many different tests and studies examining and attempting to understand the workings of the mind. One such study happens to be focusing on dreams and the people involved are dying. They’re not dying of natural causes either, because each one has died exactly how they dreamed they would. Now the Institute is facing a lawsuit that could shut them down. Harper needs someone to look into the study and the people involved and find out just what is going on. Jack Davis is his man.

Now, there are more than enough hints and foreshadowing throughout the book that the revelation of the murderer is not a surprise. In fact, by about halfway through the book, the identity of the murderer becomes rather glaringly obvious. This resulted in the creation of points in the story where the pace seemingly slowed down before once again picking back up. The reader, from the numerous clues and hints given, can already piece together ultimate conclusion while the protagonist is still stumbling along trying to solve the puzzle. This is, ultimately, what lead to the slowing of the story’s pace, and while it was irksome in some parts, it did not detract too much from the overall tale. The actual motivations of the killer were, however, quite a surprise and will definitely send a shiver down the reader’s spine.

Despite some segments where the story unfortunately began to lag, for the most part, Goldman’s The Dead Man is a well-paced, thrilling, and suspense-filled ride that refuses to let the reader go until the last word is read.

Joana’s Rating: (3 out of 5 stars)