Speaking in Tongues - Softcover

Jeffery Deaver

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0340640235 ISBN 13: 9780340640234

Publisher: Hodder Paperback, 1999

Synopsis

Words are the most dangerous weapons on earth - and Tate Collier, who has a consummate skill with them, can talk his way into anyone's heart, and get them to do whatever he wants. Tate is a lawyer who used to defend death penalty cases in Virginia's Supreme Court; now he concentrates on work for the local community. When his teenage daughter goes missing all the signs are that she's run away. But Tate and his ex-wife, Bett, feel differently, and set out in search of her. To discover that Megan is in the hands of a man with no morals and as great a gift for words as Tate himself. Megan's is not the only life in danger...

About this title

Review:

Tate Collier, the flawed hero of best-selling author Jeffery Deaver's exciting new thriller, is a divorced prosecutor whose tangled feelings about his ex-wife and their teenage daughter come to the forefront when the girl is kidnapped by a murderous psychiatrist bent on settling a personal score with Collier. It soon becomes clear that Tate really doesn't have a clue about Megan's life or her emotional reality, but the reader gets a fuller explanation from the girl's own perspective, and it's Megan, rather than her father, who turns out to be the real hero of this story.

Deaver draws the reader into the angry, rebellious Megan's desperate fight to save her own life in the creepy surroundings of a decrepit insane asylum in the Virginia mountains. (Deaver practically writes blueprints for the inevitable Hollywood set designer who will have a field day bringing the shuttered, rat-infested scene of Megan's captivity to the screen.) The motivation for Dr. Aaron Matthews's vendetta against the Colliers isn't revealed until most of the way through this crisply paced novel, but he's convincingly insane enough for it not to matter. Deaver throws a few implausible scenarios the reader's way, but they won't matter either; the chase is the thing. The narrative steams along without letting up, and the result is a nail biter that will keep the pages turning. --Jane Adams

About the Author:

Jeffery Deaver is the award-winning author of two collections of short stories and 29 internationally bestselling novels, including the latest James Bond novel Carte Blanche. He is best known for his Lincoln Rhyme thrillers, which include the number one bestsellers The Vanished Man, The Twelfth Card and The Cold Moon, as well as The Bone Collector which was made into a feature film starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie. The first Kathryn Dance novel, The Sleeping Doll, was published in 2007 to enormous acclaim. A three-time recipient of the Ellery Queen Reader's Award for Best Short Story of the year, he has been nominated for an Anthony Award and six Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America. He won the WH Smith Thumping Good Read Award in 2001 and in 2004 won the Crime Writers' Association Steel Dagger for Best Thriller with Garden of Beasts, and their Short Story Dagger for The Weekender from Twisted. Jeffery Deaver lives in North Carolina and California. Visit his website, www.jefferydeaver.com, Facebook page, www.facebook.com/JefferyDeaver, and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/JefferyDeaver.

About this edition

• Publisher: Hodder Paperback
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0340640235
• ISBN 13: 9780340640234
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 320