On the track of a good winter read

Finding a new book series or TV series to enjoy can be difficult. But finding a new TV series, and discovering it’s based on a book series by Jeffery Deaver, is awesome. “Tracker” is a new TV series that’s on CBS Sunday nights. The first season started in February 2024 (“Klamath Falls” was the name of the first one!) and the second season started in October. The TV series is filmed in British Columbia, so the scenery is awesome (kind of like our scenery in Central Oregon).

Colter Shaw is the “tracker.” His job is to help private citizens and law enforcement when reward money is offered to find missing people — and in one instance, a missing dog. Deaver has eight books featuring Shaw, so that means the TV series has a lot of episodes to go.

So far, there are four short stories and four novels published. The series is made up of: four short stories — “Captivated,” “The Second Hostage,” “Forgotten,” and “The Deadline Clock;” and four novels — “The Never Game,” “The Goodbye Man,” “The Final Twist,” and “Hunting Time.” The fifth novel coming next year is “South of Nowhere.”

You don’t have to read (or watch) the series in order, since each book or TV episode is based on a different case. A few of the characters are regulars, but new people appear in every book and TV show, which keeps it interesting. The regulars help him in many ways, especially with finding rewards posted, solving any legal problems, and finding critical information through multiple computer systems.

“The Deadline Clock” is a good one to start with. Shaw arrives in Westbay, Maine, because one of his team members saw a notice offering a reward for help in finding Ellie Kohl, a kidnap victim. The problem is that the help needed is urgent, because Ellie is the second victim in the town, and a deadline for the ransom to be paid is only a few hours away. The first victim’s family was able to come up with the ransom money only a few minutes before the victim would have been killed. The Kohls are not wealthy, so trying to find some way to get the money makes things even worse.

“The Never Game” is excellent, also. Shaw is on the hunt for Sophie Mulliner, a 19-year-old student who disappeared after an argument with her father. Some people think she left voluntarily, but her father believes there is no way she would leave her dog behind if she was leaving for good. After Shaw sees security video from the last place she stopped to get a bite to eat, he agrees with her dad that she didn’t choose to leave. Included in this novel are several side stories on other cases, so it stays interesting throughout.

Following Shaw’s path to rescuing victims is intriguing. He was raised in a “survivalist family” so his knowledge of tracking is excellent, but the way he puts seemingly unimportant clues together to find and rescue innocent people is great. If the TV series stays as popular as it seems to be now, Deaver will be writing a lot more novels and short stories.