In the shaded portions where the two spheres of different lives meet, certain fundamentals- moods, loves, fears, angers- can't be hidden. That's the contract.

Three of Deaver's novels have been produced into films:
The Bone Collector (1999)
A Maiden's Grave as the TV film Dead Silence (1997)
The Devil's Teardrop (2010) also a TV film
Deaver also created the characters and—in a collaboration with 14 other noted writers—wrote the 17-part serial thriller The Chopin Manuscript narrated by Alfred Molina that was broadcast on Audible. One of his books The Blue Nowhere features criminal hackers (one using social engineering to commit murder) as well as a law enforcement computer crime unit. He has been awarded the Steel Dagger and Short Story Dagger from the British Crime Writers' Association and the Nero Wolfe Award and he is a three-time recipient of the Ellery Queen Reader's Award for Best Short Story of the Year and a winner of the British Thumping Good Read Award.

His novels have appeared on bestseller lists around the world including The New York Times The Times Italy's Corriere della Sera The Sydney Morning Herald and The Los Angeles Times. He has a bachelor of journalism degree from the University of Missouri and a law degree from Fordham University and originally started working as a journalist.