In usual Deaver fashion, The Final Twist (G.P. Putnam 2021), a new series and separate from the long-standing and highly-successful Lincoln Rhyme character, is a fast moving, intricate, and original thriller. The main character--Colton Shaw--finds people, good or bad, no questions asked, for money. To become the most sought-after finder who regularly does what seems impossible, he draws on a background of survivalist training, defensive and offensive skills taught to him and his siblings by his father. In this, the first of the series, he is drawn into a mystery that also might help him understand how his father was killed in circumstances that he should have easily survived. To Colton's surprise his estranged brother shows up, a man he hasn't seen in a decade, not since their father died. For Colton and his brother, survival means questioning everything:

"...as the son of a survivalist, Shaw had a preliminary question: Just how safe a safe house was it?"

"No evidence of threat isn’t synonymous with no threat."

"Sanction was one of those odd words that had contradictory meanings: it could be either permission—as in you’re sanctioned to attack—or punishment, as in imposing sanctions."

I loved Jeffrey Deaver's NY criminalist Lincoln Rhymes. I read every one in that series and never got bored. I didn’t know if I’d like this new guy, Colter Shaw. Two pages into it, I did. Besides being an interesting character, tough and resilient, grounded in family, with a strong moral core, I learned a lot about survivalist strategies. He shares rules his father drilled into him that apply to life in general:

He hears his father’s voice: Never be blunt when subtle will do.

Never resort to violence unless you have no alternative."

Never assume your weapon is loaded and hasn’t been damaged or sabotaged since the last time you used it."

Never fight from a downhill position.

Never use a safe house that doesn’t have a trapdoor . . . 

You see why I embraced Colton and claim him now as a favorite character. What do you think?