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Summary: Another Lincoln Rhyme Super Thriller
Review: Lincoln Rhyme, crime solving quadriplegic, follows medical advances, hoping to improve his condition. This quest leads him and his assistant Amelia Sachs to the University of North Carolina Medical Center for some experimental surgery. Upon his arrival the local sheriff seeks his aide in catching a teenager, nicknamed Insect Boy, who is the leading suspect in a murder and the abduction of two girls. Rhyme and Amelia catch the kid, but Amelia believe he's innocent and helps him escape. Now Lincoln must use his forensic skill against his protégé. This, like all of Deaver's Lincoln Rhyme stories, is one heck of a page turning read and it gets five stars from me. Just a super thriller. Reviewed by Vesta Irene
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Summary: Is the "Insect Boy," Really A Killer?
Review: Lincoln Rhyme, the renowned criminalist from the Bone Collector and the Coffin Dancer, will fcae his ultimate opponent: a kidnapper and murderer dubbed the Insect Boy. But Rhyme is in for a surprise when he learns that catching a criminal is one thing; keeping him is quite another. Now Rhyme finds himself hunting a ruhtless killer in the heart of a southern swampland-and going head-to-head with his protege, Amelia Sachs. This is a rivalry that will test both the limits of their expertise and their love. The book will keep you in suspense.
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Summary: Oh puhleeease!
Review: Oh! There aren't enough words to say how dreadful this novel is! Implausible story! Embarrassingly stereotypical characters! Emotionally challenged women, super-macho men! How impossible that so many people in such a small town could ALL be involved in murder! I physically cringed when, in the middle of a stand-off, as a man is lying on the floor bleeding from a gunshot wound, the person who goes to his aid is told, "One thing, he's gay. He's been tested, but.." How outrageous is that! Just because a man is gay, you're supposed to automatically assume he might have AIDS?! Several times I wanted to throw the book away, but I just had to know if the story redeemed itself in the end. No, it didn't! Avoid this trainwreck of a book!
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Summary: Way Too Empty
Review: Okay, okay, okay. Deaver is not out to win any writing awards. I had to struggle with that at first. He wrote this novel the way some of us write comments on a co-worker's birthday card. We keep it short, try to be witty, and rarely use complete sentences. Perhaps I was disappointed because I read The Devil's Teardrop first. Also by Deaver, Teardrop is a fantastic example of a hardboiled forensic thriller that doesn't cop-out and doesn't resort to stunted writing in order to keep the pace lively.
Will you think the plot to The Empty Chair is silly? Yes. There were so many people involved in the story, so many characters that ended up lumped into the Bad Guy column that at one point I was giggling uncontrollably. But you know what? I kept reading. I moved right along. Because I wasn't expecting an insightful or challenging story. Deaver's story twists are like those on a circus pretzel: they're big, obvious, and filling. I didn't mind that.
Will you think the characters are silly? Absolutely. Only Rhyme and Sachs have any depth here, and that's because they've already had two books to develop into something resembling actual people (and even Rhyme is still 2-D at a lot of points). Most notably, Insect Boy, the book's primary villian (or IS he? oooooh!) is a horrible charicature of a lonely and socially challenged teen. Deaver peppers his dialogue with an abundance of "like"s and makes him a horny little kid (we get to read about his erections at least four or five times), but he is also, if you can believe it, a calculating genius. Go figure.
Is the action contrived? You betcha! The shoot outs, the escapes, the reveals, the fights, and the suspense are all paper-thin and about as cheesy as a wheel of chedder. In fact, the one thing that makes the action endurable and readable is the one thing that ultimately destroys any value the novel might have:
The writing. Deaver's stylism here is absolutely worthless. The dialogue is all stilted. The exposition is all clunky and awkward and ill-placed. The interal analysis of characters and events is pointless, hollow, and uninteresting. In fact, the only interesting thing about the book was wondering just how many twists Deaver was planning on putting in this particular pretzel. For those of you waiting for a plane or for the tide to come in, this book may just be interesting enough.
For the rest of you, try the Devil's Teardrop. Empty Chair is just TOO empty.
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Summary: Deaver does it again and has written a real page-turner!
Review: Remember the quadriplegic, expert criminologist, who has motion only in a small part of his neck and in one finger? What about his brilliant redheaded protégé who acts as his legs at crime-scenes? Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs are back in the third installment of this mystery saga. After searching for an old-fashioned New York killer in The Bone Collector (1997) and tracking the tattooed Dancer through the streets of Manhattan in The Coffin Dancer (1998), the partners are now helping the local police in a North Carolina town find the kidnapper and murderer of two young women. When Rhyme travels to North Carolina to undergo an experimental and risky surgical procedure, hoping to increase his mobility, he has no idea that his talents as one of the nation's best crime-scene analysts would be called into play on a case. With physical evidence collected by Sachs at various crime-scenes, he must locate a hideaway cabin where a bug-obsessed teenage boy may be holding nurse Lydia Johansson. Rhyme and Sachs have no more than 24 hours to track the suspect Garrett Hanlon, referred to as Insect Boy by the locals, before he kills the abducted nurse. Insect Boy is not the only opponent Rhyme and Sachs must face. The local deputies are not keen to accept the arrival of New York cops on the scene and taking control of their case. The local deputies have dreamt of catching Insect Boy since his first presumed murder a couple years back, and are willing to do anything to catch him - dead or alive. When Sachs starts having doubts about the identity of the "real" murderer, she rejects Rhyme's assumptions and starts her own investigation. Now Rhyme, assisted by his aid Thom and a marine biology scientist, must work against his lover and most valued friend, in locating the abducted nurse before the local deputies. Deaver does it again and has written a real page-turner thriller. The plot is both well defined and well written. Allies become enemies, and enemies become allies. You will find new interpretations of the title The Empty Chair throughout the book. Suspense fans will be well served.
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Summary: Twists and Turns
Review: This book has twists and turns from the beginning until the end. Only Deaver could pit his two main characters Sachs and Rhyme against each other and make it work. Just when you thought you knew where this book was going it takes another twist. It is a book that is hard to put down. It was so exciting and I got so involved in it that I was tired from all the excitement. When you can get that involved in a book you know it is good.
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