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The Devoted Game
A disgraced FBI agent is challenged to a life-or-death match by a deviously clever kidnapper in this propulsive novel by
USA Today
bestselling author Debra Webb.
Former FBI agent Ryan McBride crashed and burned three years ago after a case took a fatal turn. He swore he was done with the Bureau forever—until Special Agent Vivian Grace shows up at his door with a new case he can’t refuse.
Six-year-old Alyssa Byrne has been kidnapped, and her abductor, alias Devoted Fan, has threatened to kill her in twenty-four hours. He promises to reveal the girl’s location to the FBI on one He’ll only talk to McBride.
With the clock ticking, Grace and McBride race to solve Devoted Fan’s puzzles, each more twisted than the last. But when another victim goes missing, with a promise of more to come, they realize that Devoted Fan is not just a stranger with a deranged obsession. His sick game is somehow connected to both their pasts—but around which dark corner lies the answer?
Revised Previously published as Nameless , this edition of The Devoted Game includes editorial revisions.
Former FBI agent Ryan McBride crashed and burned three years ago after a case took a fatal turn. He swore he was done with the Bureau forever—until Special Agent Vivian Grace shows up at his door with a new case he can’t refuse.
Six-year-old Alyssa Byrne has been kidnapped, and her abductor, alias Devoted Fan, has threatened to kill her in twenty-four hours. He promises to reveal the girl’s location to the FBI on one He’ll only talk to McBride.
With the clock ticking, Grace and McBride race to solve Devoted Fan’s puzzles, each more twisted than the last. But when another victim goes missing, with a promise of more to come, they realize that Devoted Fan is not just a stranger with a deranged obsession. His sick game is somehow connected to both their pasts—but around which dark corner lies the answer?
Revised Previously published as Nameless , this edition of The Devoted Game includes editorial revisions.
- GenresMystery ThrillerMystery
320 pages, Paperback
Published January 6, 2026
About the author
Debra Webb
551 books2,469 followersDEBRA WEBB is the USA Today bestselling author of more than 180 novels, including reader favorites the Finley O'Sullivan and Devlin & Falco series. She is the recipient of the prestigious Romantic Times Career Achievement Award for Romantic Suspense as well as numerous Reviewers Choice Awards. In 2012 Debra was honored as the first recipient of the esteemed L. A. Banks Warrior Woman Award for her courage, strength, and grace in the face of adversity. Recently Debra was awarded the distinguished Centennial Award for having achieved publication of her 100th novel.
With more than ten million books in print in numerous languages and countries, Debra’s love of storytelling goes back to her childhood when her mother bought her an old typewriter in a tag sale. Born in Alabama, Debra grew up on a farm. She spent every available hour exploring the world around her and creating her stories. She wrote her first story at age nine and her first romance at thirteen. It wasn’t until she spent three years working for the Commanding General of the US Army in Berlin behind the Iron Curtain and a five-year stint in NASA’s Shuttle Program that she realized her true calling. A collision course between suspense and romance was set. Since then she has expanded her work into some of the darkest places the human psyche dares to go. Visit Debra at www.debrawebb.com.
With more than ten million books in print in numerous languages and countries, Debra’s love of storytelling goes back to her childhood when her mother bought her an old typewriter in a tag sale. Born in Alabama, Debra grew up on a farm. She spent every available hour exploring the world around her and creating her stories. She wrote her first story at age nine and her first romance at thirteen. It wasn’t until she spent three years working for the Commanding General of the US Army in Berlin behind the Iron Curtain and a five-year stint in NASA’s Shuttle Program that she realized her true calling. A collision course between suspense and romance was set. Since then she has expanded her work into some of the darkest places the human psyche dares to go. Visit Debra at www.debrawebb.com.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 6, 2025
This book was just okay. The beginning was kind of off putting. Also, it almost objectifies a woman with a sexual assault history. However, thr story itself is pretty suspenseful and it did get better as I kept reading.
Thank you to Net Galley and Thomas and Mercer for giving me this ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Thank you to Net Galley and Thomas and Mercer for giving me this ARC in exchange for my honest review.
January 2, 2026
I didn’t enjoy this one at all. I’m usually a big fan of Debra Webb’s writing—her stories are page‑turners that keep me hooked— but this one felt completely off—as if someone else had taken over. From the very first pages, the style seemed dated, almost like it had been written decades ago...The characters were flat and unlikable, offering no emotional pull or reason to care. The supposed hero came across as a complete jerk, while the heroine lacked the strength or qualities that would make me root for her. The suspense never landed, and the story failed to captivate or compel me to keep reading... Releases on January 6.
Content: language. The story relied too heavily on explicit sexual scenes, which felt unnecessary and detracted from the plot.
Thank you, NetGalley and Publisher, for the eARC.
Content: language. The story relied too heavily on explicit sexual scenes, which felt unnecessary and detracted from the plot.
Thank you, NetGalley and Publisher, for the eARC.
May 8, 2026
Originally reviewed on StoryGraph: 3 ⭐️
I’m going to be honest, I don’t know why I borrowed this on KU. I remember thinking that the description sounded interesting, but I don’t read procedurals that much because I feel like they’re pretty repetitive and I’m not sure that anything can top the Hannibal Lecter series. I did end up enjoying it more than I thought I would, even though it had a rough start.
Vivian was just consumed with lust from the jump. In chapter 2, she has to resist the urge to squirm because she smelled the tobacco on Ryan's breath. That’s just yuck. Then he ordered a sandwich (A SANDWICH) and she lost her fucking mind. After he ordered, the next line is “She quelled a shiver. That he had that effect on her made her want to kick herself.” Ma’am, you need to get some therapy if a guy saying he wants a club sandwich and fries makes you shiver. I had to tell my husband about it because that’s one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever read. There were also a lot of sentences that started with “That he had” which was very annoying and repetitive.
I also feel like Ryan treated women very grossly. He respects Schaffer because she doesn’t wear makeup and keeps her hair short which apparently means that she didn’t waste time with frivolities. No woman is better than any other because they decide to wear makeup or don’t and I don’t know why any man has an opinion on it honestly.
Ryan spends the whole book objectifying Vivian and saying how he’s going to have sex with her. Then when he finds out that she was raped, he says “Damn, he had been an asshole.” Umm yeah? Is that news? A woman doesn’t have to have been raped in order for him to be an asshole for objectifying her. He’s just an asshole anyway and I don’t like that he only discovers that after learning about her past. He also says that she has every right to be hypersensitive about her body, which again, she didn’t have to be raped in order to feel any type of way about her body. She can have any opinion she wants to without his permission.
He pushed way too hard when asking about her time in captivity. The questions that he asked were gross and way out of line. Honestly, their relationship really brought the book down for me. It didn’t make any sense and I couldn’t figure out why they wanted to be together. I would’ve much rather read this book without the romance.
I did like the villain in this and the mystery. I thought some of the setups were unique and I like how all of the victims were connected. I was more interested in them finding the victims than them trying to decipher the clues. I’m not familiar with the area in which this story takes place, so I couldn’t picture the locations very well. But with the second victim, a rando basically tells Vivian where the victim is without trying, which felt way too easy and like lazy storytelling.
I did like how the bomb on the doctor sped up the countdown every time he moved, showing how he’s used to having the control and being a man of action, but having that power taken away. I haven’t seen a book with that before, but I also don’t read a lot of books about cops and agents, so maybe it’s not unique, but I liked it and I think it fit with the story and characters.
The writing wasn’t my favorite. There were a lot of cheesy lines and things that just didn’t work for me. I also feel like there wasn’t a lot of variance in the sentence structure, so it seemed repetitive. I didn’t really like how the characters were written either.
There were moments where I felt like the author was trying to make more out of a situation than what it was. When Ryan is going back home, he’s wearing the clothes he came with because those were his only clothes he had. Vivian thinks “It made her wonder if that was symbolic…him going back to the way things were before she intruded in his life.” Like, he’s just wearing his clothes, it’s not that serious. It doesn’t mean anything that he didn’t want to wear unwashed clothes that someone else bought for him.
I did like this book, regardless of my issues with it. I never wanted to DNF it and I was invested in which victim would be taken, seeing the villain getting caught, and how everything was connected. I wouldn’t recommend this book because I think there are better procedural books out there that have a relationship you can root for. I’m not opposed to reading another book by this author because there were things that I liked, but this isn’t my usual genre and I’m not seeking to read more.
I’m going to be honest, I don’t know why I borrowed this on KU. I remember thinking that the description sounded interesting, but I don’t read procedurals that much because I feel like they’re pretty repetitive and I’m not sure that anything can top the Hannibal Lecter series. I did end up enjoying it more than I thought I would, even though it had a rough start.
Vivian was just consumed with lust from the jump. In chapter 2, she has to resist the urge to squirm because she smelled the tobacco on Ryan's breath. That’s just yuck. Then he ordered a sandwich (A SANDWICH) and she lost her fucking mind. After he ordered, the next line is “She quelled a shiver. That he had that effect on her made her want to kick herself.” Ma’am, you need to get some therapy if a guy saying he wants a club sandwich and fries makes you shiver. I had to tell my husband about it because that’s one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever read. There were also a lot of sentences that started with “That he had” which was very annoying and repetitive.
I also feel like Ryan treated women very grossly. He respects Schaffer because she doesn’t wear makeup and keeps her hair short which apparently means that she didn’t waste time with frivolities. No woman is better than any other because they decide to wear makeup or don’t and I don’t know why any man has an opinion on it honestly.
Ryan spends the whole book objectifying Vivian and saying how he’s going to have sex with her. Then when he finds out that she was raped, he says “Damn, he had been an asshole.” Umm yeah? Is that news? A woman doesn’t have to have been raped in order for him to be an asshole for objectifying her. He’s just an asshole anyway and I don’t like that he only discovers that after learning about her past. He also says that she has every right to be hypersensitive about her body, which again, she didn’t have to be raped in order to feel any type of way about her body. She can have any opinion she wants to without his permission.
He pushed way too hard when asking about her time in captivity. The questions that he asked were gross and way out of line. Honestly, their relationship really brought the book down for me. It didn’t make any sense and I couldn’t figure out why they wanted to be together. I would’ve much rather read this book without the romance.
I did like the villain in this and the mystery. I thought some of the setups were unique and I like how all of the victims were connected. I was more interested in them finding the victims than them trying to decipher the clues. I’m not familiar with the area in which this story takes place, so I couldn’t picture the locations very well. But with the second victim, a rando basically tells Vivian where the victim is without trying, which felt way too easy and like lazy storytelling.
I did like how the bomb on the doctor sped up the countdown every time he moved, showing how he’s used to having the control and being a man of action, but having that power taken away. I haven’t seen a book with that before, but I also don’t read a lot of books about cops and agents, so maybe it’s not unique, but I liked it and I think it fit with the story and characters.
The writing wasn’t my favorite. There were a lot of cheesy lines and things that just didn’t work for me. I also feel like there wasn’t a lot of variance in the sentence structure, so it seemed repetitive. I didn’t really like how the characters were written either.
There were moments where I felt like the author was trying to make more out of a situation than what it was. When Ryan is going back home, he’s wearing the clothes he came with because those were his only clothes he had. Vivian thinks “It made her wonder if that was symbolic…him going back to the way things were before she intruded in his life.” Like, he’s just wearing his clothes, it’s not that serious. It doesn’t mean anything that he didn’t want to wear unwashed clothes that someone else bought for him.
I did like this book, regardless of my issues with it. I never wanted to DNF it and I was invested in which victim would be taken, seeing the villain getting caught, and how everything was connected. I wouldn’t recommend this book because I think there are better procedural books out there that have a relationship you can root for. I’m not opposed to reading another book by this author because there were things that I liked, but this isn’t my usual genre and I’m not seeking to read more.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
“The Devoted Game” is a re-release of Debra Webb’s 2008 novel “Nameless” with some editorial changes.
In “The Devoted Game”, Ryan McBride is a burnout of a former FBI agent. Things had gone south on his last case, and he took the hit, unwillingly, and was a fall guy for the FBI. He has no interest in ever helping the FBI again. And then, at his lowest point, Vivian Grace comes to visit. The young agent is there to ask him to come back to help the FBI solve a missing person’s case. The perpetrator, “A Devoted Fan”, will only talk to him.
To be quite honest, it feels like I’ve read this basic premise time and again. The washed up and burned out is the only one that can help. He doesn’t want to be there. They don’t want him there. And on top of that, Ryan McBride is a jerk with an overinflated ego. I seriously looked up the progress of the audiobook to check, and I was 11% in and so far, all we had covered was how awesome McBride was. He was better than everyone else. He had been done wrong. I wish I could say it got better (his bragging or the author’s reminding us of how great he was), but it continued almost the entire book.
Suffice to say, he is not a likable protagonist. The way he treats Grace is pretty despicable, but it seems like the author wants us to think it is...sexy? Oh yeah, pretty graphic sex scene takes place.
Now, with all of that, I must say, Vivian Grace is an amazing character and the author wrote her with such depth. It is a masterful job in how to write a complex character. The only good purpose of McBride is his being a jerk helps to draw out her pain, insecurities, and backstory.
And the mystery is so good. Like absolute top-notch. The complexity of the story and the dramatic, heart-pounding scenes were incredible.
Tolerate McBride. Hang on for the incredible ride and fall in love with the hero we all need, Vivian Grace.
Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for providing an ARC for an unbiased review.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
This was not my favorite story from this author. I usually really enjoy their books but this one was not for me. I found the way the MC questioned the FMC over her sexual assault history creepy and off putting! It was truly bizarre. It also felt didn't feel believable that the FMC would have reacted that way after he made her relive her assault through his weird questions. It almost gave the vibe that he got off on hearing about it, and he was supposed to be protagonist? I don't know it just wasn't for me.
Maybe there is some nuance to this topic that I overlooked or missed. I'm sure there is an audience that it will land with. However, the story did get better as it progressed and the suspense was there making it more interesting and easy to read.
The narrators did a great job and made it easier to continue with the story past the first 35%.
Overall, I will still pick up books from this author because I enjoy them, this one just was not for me!
Thank you to NetGalley and Brilliance Publishing for the advanced listeners copy! All thoughts and opinions are my own!
Maybe there is some nuance to this topic that I overlooked or missed. I'm sure there is an audience that it will land with. However, the story did get better as it progressed and the suspense was there making it more interesting and easy to read.
The narrators did a great job and made it easier to continue with the story past the first 35%.
Overall, I will still pick up books from this author because I enjoy them, this one just was not for me!
Thank you to NetGalley and Brilliance Publishing for the advanced listeners copy! All thoughts and opinions are my own!
February 22, 2026
Alabama. Sloss. FBI
May 19, 2026
Outstanding! I absolutely loved this book! I kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time!! I highly recommend it for any thriller lover!!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews