The Empty Chair - Hardcover

Jeffery Deaver

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0684855631 ISBN 13: 9780684855639

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2000

Synopsis

When wheelchair-bound criminologist Lincoln Rhyme is asked by the North Carolina police to help out with two local kidnapping cases, he has no idea that the kidnapper will come between him and everything he holds dear, especially his protTgTe and love, Amelia Sachs. 200,000 first printing.

About this title

Review:

It's not easy being NYPD detective Lincoln Rhyme, the world's foremost criminalist. First of all, he's a quadriplegic. Secondly, he's forever being second-guessed and mother-henned by his ex-model-turned-cop protégé, Amelia Sachs, and his personal aide, Thom. And thirdly, it seems that he can't motor his wheelchair around a corner without bumping into one crazed psycho-killer after another.

In The Empty Chair, Jeffery Deaver's third Rhyme outing--after 1997's The Bone Collector and 1998's The Coffin Dancer--Rhyme travels to North Carolina to undergo an experimental surgical procedure and is, a jot too coincidentally, met at the door by a local sheriff, the cousin of an NYPD colleague, bearing one murder, two kidnappings, and a timely plea for help. It seems that 16-year-old Garrett Hanlon, a bug-obsessed orphan known locally as the Insect Boy, has kidnapped and probably raped two women, and bludgeoned to death a would-be hero who tried to stop one of the abductions.

Rhyme sets up shop, Amelia leads the local constabulary (easily recognized by their out-of-joint noses) into the field, and, after some Holmesian brain work and a good deal of exciting cat-and-mousing, the duo leads the cops to their prey. And just as you're idly wondering why the case is coming to an end in the middle of the book, Amelia breaks the boy out of jail and goes on the lam. Equally convinced of the boy's guilt and the danger he poses to Amelia, Rhyme has no choice but to aid the police in apprehending the woman he loves--no easy task, as she's the one human being who truly knows the methods of Lincoln Rhyme.

Rhyme's specialty combines the minute scientific analysis of physical evidence gathered from crime scenes and his arcane knowledge of, it would seem, every organic and inorganic substance on earth. Deaver combines engaging narration, believable characters, and his trademark ability to repeatedly pull the rug out from under the reader's feet. Lincoln Rhyme's back all right, and the smart money's betting that his run has just begun. --Michael Hudson

About the Author:

Jeffery Deaver, former attorney and folksinger, is a New York Times bestselling author of fourteen novels. He¹s been nominated for three Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America and is a two-time recipient of the Ellery Queen Reader¹s Award for Best Short Story of the Year. His book A Maiden¹s Grave was made into an HBO movie titled Dead Silence, starring James Garner and Marlee Matlin, and his novel The Bone Collector was a feature release from Universal Pictures, starring Denzel Washington. His most recent novels are The Coffin Dancer and The Devil¹s Teardrop. He lives in Virginia and California.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0684855631
• ISBN 13: 9780684855639
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 416