Scheme by Jeffrey Deaver

Published by Amazon on April 28, 2022

“Scheme” is an Amazon original short story. It might be slightly longer than an average short story, but not long enough to qualify as a novella.

A well-hidden bomb is found in a hospital, so well hidden that a robot can’t get to it. Why do the police believe that a caller was able to spot such a well-hidden “suspicious package”?  We’re never told.

The police conclude that the bomb was planted by a right-wing militia. What evidence supports that hypothesis? Well, some other bomb once was planted by a militia, so this one must have been too. Why does this pass for reasoning? We’re never told.

Somehow the police “tech” unit gets a warrant to search email sent from cellphones that were near the bomb at some point. All email, mind you, most of which will clearly have nothing to do with the bomb. The police managed this feat based on what probable cause? We’re never told because that’s not how warrants work.

The search yields an email containing the phrase “It’s in position,” which the police believe is a reference to the bomb. This leads to an earlier email to the presumed bomber that gives the date of the bombing but not the location. It does, however, include a bad poem. Why do the police think the poem has something to do with the bomb? We’re never told.

When the tech people find a second poem in an email, an English professor at the local college helps them decode it. The professor astutely concludes that the poems suck. The reader will likely agree, but the professor offers an academic perspective to explain why they suck. A third poem is no better.

The plot allows Deaver to give the reader an introduction to poetry, something that might be useful for readers who didn’t attend high school. The cop who works with the professor pays more attention to her “sparkly eyes” than her lectures about rhyming schemes, which leads to the cop showing his scars to the professor, which leads to … well, you know.

Meanwhile, other cops made a big drug bust that involves “the mob.” Since we hear about it three or four times, it will obviously tie into the poetry slam bomber at some point.

The story seems bizarre until it takes a twist at the end that explains the poems. The twist is also bizarre, but it at least forces the protagonist detective to admit that he was a fool for not asking obvious questions that readers will surely ask. The ending is meant to make readers feel good about some seemingly bad people, but it is so contrived that I felt bad for wasting my time.

The story ends with an information dump that is not the stuff of compelling fiction. Readers who like contrived stories about dull and moronic protagonists might get into “Scheme.” The rest of the reading world will lose nothing by giving it a pass.

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