Rating: 
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.
Rating: 
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.
Rating:
Summary: Simply Too Much
Review: I'm a new fan of the Lincoln Rhyme series and started with The Stone Monkey -- a terrific book which had me at the book store within 24 hours to pick up the other Rhyme novels. I have to say that The Empty Chair is not very good -- nowhere near the calibre of The Bone Collector or Coffin Dancer. There are simply too many plot twists and the basic premise of the novel (town becomes toxic waste dump) has been done to death. This part of the plot can be figured out in the first 100 pages. The interaction between Sachs & Rhyme is still good - even Thom gets to be involved a little more - but the story is simply over the top in terms of who the villains actually are and how the heroes save the day. The reader is also expected to believe that charges against Amelia for manslaughter are dropped because the victim was dirty? Implausible to say the least. Also, the author's technique of having a "personal crisis" in the relationship between Sachs & Rhyme end one chapter and then begin the next chapter with the villain's actions is getting a little tired. The author should have more faith that his work is intriguing enough to get the reader to actually want to finish the book without resorting to gimmicks and chapter-ending cliffhangers. This book is a disappointment and clearly the weakest in the series...not bad enough to ruin the entire series, however. I'll still read the Rhyme novels -- overall, the series is very, very good!
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