The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes

April 15, 2011

Has Daniel Hayes killed his wife? The question torments the amnesia victim who's the protagonist of this fifth suspense novel from Sakey (The Blade Itself, 2007, etc.). 

A naked man is crawling out of the icy ocean and up the deserted beach. He has no idea where he is or what happened. Then he spots a parked car, a silver BMW. There's a recently fired Glock inside and an owner's manual belonging to Daniel Hayes of Malibu; the name triggers no memories. He finds a motel and learns he's in Maine. More questions. Why is he compelled to watch a cable show with pretty actresses? And why is a cop banging on his door? There's nothing wrong with Daniel's reflexes: In seconds he's behind the wheel and out of there. It's a gripping enough start. Daniel steals new plates and returns to Malibu. He learns he's a screenwriter, married to one of those actresses, Laney Thayer, who died when her car was forced off the road. Daniel is a murder suspect. We meet other characters. Sophie, Daniel's agent, is being threatened by an intruder called Bennett, who has questions about Daniel and a necklace. Bennett is the sketchily characterized heavy, a Mr. Cool, blackmailer par excellence. A taut scene between Daniel and Laney's co-star ends with an enraged Daniel attacking him; could that same rage have led him to kill Lacey? Sakey lets the question hang, effectively. Elsewhere he is less convincing. Daniel is still driving his BMW with the stolen plates; the cops, after an unbelievably amateurish stakeout of Daniel's house, pretty much disappear. A shocking plot twist at the heart of the novel further undermines credibility. It's part of a one-two punch, the second punch only landing at the end. Dead bodies pile up; so do the improbabilities. It doesn't help that this hard-boiled crime fiction has a disconcertingly soft center, typified by the Forrest Gump-like mantra, "Life is a raindrop."

Far-fetched. 

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January 1, 2011

Sakey opens his new novel with a fairly standard gambit: a man awakens half-drowned on the beach, with no memory of who he is, then finds a car nearby with clothes that fit and auto registration for one Daniel Hayes. But Sakey's a good writer; let's find out what happens next. All thriller fans should investigate.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 1, 2011
A man awakens on a deserted beach, naked, wet, and suffering from hypothermia, He has no idea who he is, where he is, or how he got there. He staggers to a Beemer parked behind the beach. In it, he finds warmth, clothes that fit him, cash, a Rolex, a gun, and a car registration in the name of Daniel Hayes of Malibu, California. But the name means nothing to him. He checks into a shabby motel, but his sleep is ruined by a vivid and terrifying nightmare. He finds that hes fixated on the image of Emily Sweet, an actress in a sitcom. He also learns that hes in northernmost Maine and that the police are after him. Sakey has previously, and successfully (The Amateurs, 2009), placed ordinary people in terrible danger and watched them struggle to survive. He does it again here. But by robbing his protagonist of all identity and all human connections and haunting him with fugitive bits of restored memory, Sakey ups the ante. His protagonists struggles to learn who he is, what hes accused of, and why hes in danger offer readers an insightful, emotion-packed, suspenseful, and genuinely riveting thriller.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)

Starred review from April 15, 2011

Sakey's (The Blade Itself; Good People) latest thriller begins with Daniel Hayes, naked and nearly drowned, lying in the surf off the coast of Maine. Suffering from amnesia and a vague feeling of guilt, he believes the answers to his current state lie in Los Angeles and heads there trying to find his identity. He discovers that he is a successful screenwriter and that his glamorous TV star wife has just been murdered in a car accident. The cops are after him as a suspect, and a blackmailing hard guy is also pursuing him. Still, he remembers only bits and pieces, just enough to make him suspect even his wife. VERDICT The action is fast-paced, the tension is nearly constant, and there are more twists in the plot than in a double helix. Sakey is a master at nudging characters out of their element, ratcheting up the suspense and then, just as resolution seems near, doing it again. A possible threat to readers' cardiac health and a likely candidate for Hollywood interest. [See Prepub Alert, 12/13/10.]--Roland Person, emeritus, Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.