Book Review: The Empty Chair

Reviewed By: Luke Croll - RAM

The Empty Chair     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Jeffery Wilds Deaver
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Thriller   Police Procedural
Series: Lincoln Rhyme # 3
Hodder & Stoughton, 2000, £10.00
Classification: Adult fiction (Police thriller)

After relegating Lincoln Rhyme to only a cameo appearance in his last book, 'The Devil's Teardrop', Jeffery Deaver has chosen to bring him back as the star in his latest novel. Here, Rhyme is in North Carolina for some experimental surgery, in the faint hope that he may get some more movement in his paralyzed body. He also knows that he could die from it.

However, before the surgery, Rhyme and assistant Amelia Sachs are asked to help find two women kidnapped by a psychotic known locally as the Insect Boy. It is a case that is going to have grave consequences for everyone concerned.

It is not often that you find a book that you enjoy as much as I enjoyed this one. Deaver has packed in his customary twists and turns, with events taking place that left me open-mouthed with disbelief. Despite the fact that Rhyme feels that he is a 'fish out of a water' in the swampy towns, he manages all right and this case is clearly his best one to date.

Deaver also continues to develop his characters and in this novel, they go further than ever before. Thom gets a bit of excitement for a change and Rhyme and Sachs find even more sides to their characters. Just when you think that they cannot get any deeper, Deaver succeeds in throwing in some more events to make the reader look at them differently. Choosing to write about a person as paralysed as Rhyme must have been a difficult thing to do, but Deaver succeeds and Rhyme appears very human.

Overall, this is an excellent novel, with an intricate plot that twists and turns all over the place, trying its very best to fool the readers as much as possible. I feel that this is easily Deaver's best novel yet.

Luke Croll - RAM

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Luke Croll - RAM

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