Hey everyone and welcome to Owl Book World! Today I’m writing a review of Deadly Games by Steve French. I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I was to read and review this thriller. I’ve read another one of Steve French’s books before (you can find the link at the end of this post) and really enjoyed it. So, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this one. I hope you enjoy my review and make sure to subscribe to my newsletter if you want to stay up to date on books.

Deadly Games book summary:

Deadly Games is a thriller by Steve French. The story follows Clay. He’s a bartender and knows everything about his regulars. They tell him everything. On top of that, it’s easy for him to read their body language too. When a woman, who just so happens to be a regular, gets killed Clay is the main suspect. He wants to tell the police the truth about his life outside of work but there’s someone who is trying to frame him. Not many people know about his personal life, but whoever is trying to frame him knows everything about him. But how? Clay is usually very careful about what he lets people know. Can Clay get out of this situation?

What I thought about Deadly Games

So, I got an advanced copy of Deadly Games back in December. I know I know I’m pretty late at getting to the book and getting it reviewed. Deadly Games is a thriller book that I was pretty excited to read. A man that knows everything about his regulars at the bar doesn’t realize that he’s being watched. He doesn’t realize that there are others who know more about him than he thinks. For someone who is so observant how does he not realize that someone is watching him?

The Characters 

Deadly Games follows Clay. He’s a very observant man and he’s good at what he does. He loves bartending even though it’s not something he wants to do forever. I actually really like Clay’s character. He’s not the most innocent man but he is a good man. On top of that, he’s smart. The storyline actually made me invested in what was going to happen to him. Was he going to go to jail for something he didn’t do? Nothing really new is brought to his character compared to other thrillers, but I still found myself invested. I was hoping he would get away or at least figure out who was trying to frame him.

The Plot

So, most of the plot is really good. The story kept me invested and I wanted to know what exactly was going to happen with Clay. Was he going to get convicted? Who would hate him enough to frame him? The only thing is that the ending was a bit of a disappointment. The “bad guy” isn’t really something you can guess and is kind of out of the blue. I always like thrillers with some sort of bread crumbs throughout the story and see if it’s something that I can guess or if I completely miss it. The ending was a bit underwhelming, to say the least. Despite that, the book is still a fun read. If you love thrillers then I would say it’s still worth checking out. Who knows? You may end up liking it more than me!

If you enjoyed this review then you might like the review for another book that I read by Steve French. You can find that here.