2-3-4 Challenge Book Discussions #2 discussion

There were a few red herrings presented as possible suspects (Kevin Deeter, Sean Hawke and Jake Vaughn). Did any of them make your list? Why or why not?

Not really. The way they were thrown in as red herrings was a little obvious. The only one I though had potential was the bosses' nephew Kevin. He was pretty creepy.

My three prime suspects were Keven Deeter (he seemed to be the right age and was constantly listening to something), Sean Hawkes and Cliff Siebert.

Nevertheless, they all had alibis at one time or another, so I was at a loss. I even entertained the idea that Nikki's brother, Andrew, was still alive and it was him.

I must say that having the killer be none of the red herrings detracted from my overall enjoyment of the book.

Lauren wrote: "My three prime suspects were Keven Deeter (he seemed to be the right age and was constantly listening to something), Sean Hawkes and Cliff Siebert.

Nevertheless, they all had alibis at one time o..."

That's what was the author's intention, I'm thinking. Throw out the red herrings, then slowly trickle the information about the details of the court case. I don't think the reader could have worked it out earlier with the facts we knew.

Lisa - (Aussie Girl) wrote: "I don't think the reader could have worked it out earlier with the facts we knew."

Agreed!

I’m still on the fence about whether I care for hiding the killer behind a gazillion red herrings. I prefer good, solid police procedurals instead of trickery. Some make for nice little twists but here it fell more into the annoyance range.

Kevin was über creepy and I actually wanted it to be him. But, he just seemed too obvious.

Lauren, I also considered the possibility of Andrew being alive, too!

I just didn’t know enough about Jake to keep him in or throw him out. I just let him hover, wondering if we’d be given more info. But when Simone was abducted right before his class, I dumped him.

I thought about Cliff but just didn’t think he had the spine for something like this. Sean’s ego was a bit big to be as insecure as The Survivor seemed to be. But, I kept him on my list.

Joey was never there and I almost fell for it being LeRoy Delacroix but he was out of jail and I couldn’t see what would drive him so hard to be this diabolical? He was more about bullying.

My were Keven Deeter and Sean Hawkes, but neither one were solid suspects. I never hit on Joey although, after he was revealed I felt like he should be on my list at some point.

I don't like so many red herrings in a story. One good one to throw off the investigation works for me, but these never felt right.

Cliff was never on my list because I thought he was a spineless jerk. I couldn't picture him as someone who could listen to a person die buried alive.

I was really suspicious of Cliff. I had this idea that he killed Andrew and Joey's family. Nevertheless, I ruled him out as the Survivor because he was with Reed when one of the abductions occurred (Simone's I think).