Jeffery Deaver is known to pull no stops in the research he does for a novel, whether it is his Lincoln Rhyme novels or Carte Blanche, his James Bond novel.

And his latest novel about California Bureau of Investigation special agent Kathryn Dance comes with a soundtrack.

In Deaver's newest novel XO, Dance tries to stop an obsessive stalker from destroying Kayleigh Towne, a young country/pop singer.

Of course there are twists aplenty.

There also is music.

The music mentioned in the XO novel is real. Deaver wrote the lyrics for the 11 songs on the XO CD and Clay Stafford and Ken Landers set the songs to music. The songs are performed by Treva Blomquist, playing the role of Deaver’s main character on the CD XO. Also available is a free download of the song Your Shadow, the song that is so important in XO. Details are on Deaver's web site.

Clues are in the songs, so you can listen while you read or just enjoy the music itself. Deaver currently is on tour for XO.

Deaver spoke about this project during his luncheon speech as one of the guests of honors at Sleuthfest this year.

Writing song lyrics and overseeing a CD isn't a far stretch for Deaver. In addition to being an international best-selling author, Deaver has a background in music. He once was the opening act for Bob Dylan.