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Summary: The Vanished Man - Patti
Review: "Lincoln Rhyme, the world¡¦s greatest forensic criminologist.
His partner and lover, Amelia Sachs.
And an unstoppable killer with one final, horrific trick up his sleeve¡K"Is that enough to get you hooked to the book yet? The Vanished Man by Jeffery Deaver is a book full of mystery and illusions and puzzles that are deceiving and confusing. It starts off with the description of a killer fleeing the scene of a homicide at a prestigious music school and locks himself in a classroom. But, when the police break down the door to the room with no escape, the room was empty. Do the names of the characters sound familiar? Yes, this book is in fact a spellbinding story of a wicked wizard of illusion trying to outwit the brilliant NYPD criminologist Lincoln Rhyme from the movie, The Bone Collector. This is just another book in the Lincoln Rhyme Series. Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs (His partner and lover) are brought in to help with the high-profile investigation of a master illusionist. But the conjurer baits them with gruesome murders that become more diabolical with each fresh crime. Malerick, the illusionist who can handle protean (quick change) magic, escapism, animal illusions, ventriloquism, picking locks and many others, is out to get revenge on everyone who has wronged him. In this book, Rhyme is apparently described as Malerick¡¦s only opponent that could stop him from killing.
This book is a true page-turner as Jeffery Deaver¡¦s trick is to keep you guessing throughout the whole book. The plot is a really great one and showed a lot of research on the different magic tricks and routines, and of course, greatly written mystery. It twists and turns and is hard to come to a conclusion until you¡¦ve actually read the whole book, unlike books where you can assume what the ending would be. But, sometimes Deaver does make it sort of confusing, and over elaborates his plots with too many twists and turns that makes the story not plausible anymore. Also, at the start of each chapter, it focuses on different characters and sometimes you don¡¦t see how it connects. But as you read on, most of the things start to come together. Some of the characters Deaver introduces are slightly undeveloped. The main female character, Sachs is a less noticeable character than Kara, who is an apprentice illusionist whom the police call in to consult on the case. She¡¦s the one that explains all the possible tricks the conjurer is using. She really completes the missing pieces for the characters in the book, and of course, also for the reader. Despite of all that, the book is definitely worth a read and shows what a great author Deaver is. You could feel the suspense and excitement while reading the book just thinking what is going to happen next! It¡¦s indeed a wonderful thriller book with an unbelievably well developed murderer illusionist. I hope to read more of his books!
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Summary: EXCELLENT!
Review: A prestigious music school in New York City is the scene of the crime. The killer locks himself in a classroom and within minutes a scream is heard, followed by a gunshot. The police break down the door to find the room completely empty. Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs are brought in to help with the investigation. The clues are few and far between, and the killer disappears as into thin air, but Rhyme and Sachs are determined to catch the killer. Dubbed "the conjurer" the killer is meticulous at planning, and changing his identity. He carefully picks his victims, kills them by using famous magic tricks (think sawing a body in half, escape from a water chamber, etc.), and taunts the police with each new body. Rhyme and Sachs realize they must move fast to catch "the conjurer" because each new death is growing more gruesome, and it's all leading up to the ultimate "magic trick." 'The Vanished Man' is EXCELLENT! A shocking murder grabs hold of you on page one, and un-bearable suspense keeps you turning 400 more thrill-packed pages. Take a complex plot, thrown in gruesome murders, put in tons of plot twists, and add the hunt for a twisted killer, and you have 'The Vanished Man', an up-all-night page-turner that will keep you guessing. Jeffery Deaver has written great page-turners in the past, but he outdoes himself with his latest novel. After a few mediocre novels, Deaver comes full- force with a roller coaster, shock filled book that surpasses his best efforts; The Bone Collector & The Empty Chair. Fans of the Lincoln Rhyme series are in for a real treat, for this is easily, one of the best thrillers to come out in some time. A guaranteed bestseller, 'The Vanished Man' is a MUST read! Nick Gonnella
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Summary: Now What Is The Word I Am Looking For?
Review: Ah, yes, it's "preposterous". Or maybe it's "ridiculous", or "just plain silly". No question about it,the book does move along swiftly , and provides a lot of thrills and chills, but is all of this really necessary. Author Deaver seems overcome with the idea of "things are not as they seem", and tosses away plot reversals as if they were rotten tomatoes.
The bad guy is a magician, err, illusionist, who plays a whole basketful of tricks on the NYPD. He is out there killing people, and misdirecting our quadriplegic hero and his staff so that they have a really really hard time figuring out what his intent really is. His quick change artistry, and magic allow him to escape repeatedly from the clutches of the police, but after awhile the situations become so ridiculous that you want to toss the book across the room and hope it will disappear. Hiding lock picks and other goodies in your hair is too simplistic. Our magic man lacerates his body, and then hides various pieces of equipment in the wounds. He talks in a whisper, probably because of all the razor blades and other tools of the trade tucked away in his mouth.
Now let me bring up the point that many other readers of this book seem to have missed. Person A the evildoer, wants to bring serious grief to person B. Person B is an easily accessible sort of guy, about as easy to accost as you or I would be. So, mystery fans, why doesn't A just go and make B's life miserable. Ultimately none of the shenanigans in this tale have any purpose. The other murders, the thrust and parries between him and the NYPD are pointless. I simply couldn't figure out, in the long run why all this mayhem and running about took place. Well, actually I could. The mission of our evildoer is a gimmick, a Mcguffin, a frayed clothesline of a plot on which Deaver is able to hang his 20 or so plot reversals. The purpose of the book is not to answer a basic question of murder and motive, but to make you dizzy as you try and follow the zig zags of the chase.
Deaver is a humorless writer, no comic relief except in one scene where a nitwit assassin fires his rifle through a closed window at a target across the street. Unfortunately the window is bullet proof, and causes the bullets to ricochet causing him some unexpected grief.
Our good guy, by the way, is a quadriplegic criminalist, Lincoln Rhyme, who is aided primarily by the redhead beauty, patrol officer Amelia Sachs. You should note that the author seems duty bound to tell us the hair color of all females in the book; unfortunately we are never provided with this valuable (?) information about the male characters. Rhyme isn't a particularly interesting fellow; he's sort of an irascible Perry Mason type with a more severe disability. It seems that mystery writers have really gone on a search for more exotic main characters. The drunken PI or the ethically challenged detective seem seem to be passe'. Next I envision a deceased detective who solves crimes using his casket as an office.
By the way, one author has come up with an interesting new crime solver. Jeff Lindsay has just written a book called "Darkly Dreaming Dexter", in which the police department crime solver is himself a serial killer. It's actually quite witty and entertaining although I am sure many Jeffrey Deaver fans wouldn't think of reading something as preposterous as that.
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Summary: Just like magic
Review: I have to admit that this book is much better than the Stone Monkey in every page, but as always with Rhyme's books you will never know exactly how he knew the true. This book is kind different of others because here you will learn something about magic, magicians and how they made the tricks, but this doesn't mean that the assassin plot of the book is bad.
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Summary: Quintessential Deaver
Review: In "The Vanished Man" Jeffrey Deaver plays around with the old idea of a locked room mystery--and that's only the beginning, as an illusionist-cum serial killer plagues New York, and Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs are once again called in to track him down. Most of the gang is back and the young apprentice magician, Kara, who helps track down the bad guy, may remind longtime Deaver readers of Rune from "Manhattan Is My Beat."
As always, Mr. Deaver plays with his readers, but he informs them too--you'll learn a lot about the conjurer's art, and in the process you'll learn a lot about the author's art also. I think one reason why Mr. Deaver decided to write about magic and magicians is because his own novels feature the fine art of misdirection.
This is probably the best of Deaver's Rhyme novels.
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Summary: Jeffery Deaver Does It Again!
Review: Reading a Lincoln Rhyme/Amelia Sachs novel is never dull and always engrossing. The twosome is now seeking a magician, an illusionist, whose killing patterns reflect famous illusionist tricks. The misleading trails the killer leaves in seeking his ulitmate target and agenda twist and turn through another winner of a book! If you haven't met Lincoln Rhyme yet, I urge you to get acquainted.
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Summary: Who is the real illusionist? Deaver, of course!
Review: The theme binding this book together is that of illusion - misdirection to make your audience look one way when the action is really happening the other way. Not only is the villain faced down by Lincoln Rhyme a master illusionist, so is the author himself. As with previous novels in this series, Deaver leads the reader down one false trail after another only to reveal that maybe the first trail was the right one after all... Or is it? Unfortunately, The Vanished Man also falls victim to the one major flaw with Deaver's writing style: he is fond - very fond - of his research and makes sure that every reader knows it. The author does not seamlessly weave facts and intriguing tidbits into the fabric of the story. Instead, he showcases it in a manner all but lacking the blinking neon sign indicating "Research Notes!" Nevertheless, fans of the Lincoln Rhymes novels will not be disappointed with the criminologist's latest adventure. The Vanished Man is full of fabulous forensics, interesting and favorite characters (Rhymes, Sachs, Bell, Thom), a formidable foe, and a serpentine plot.
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Summary: Abra-Cadabra
Review: The Vanished Man is the latest Lincoln Rhyme caper, and is one of the best.
It begins when two police women track down a killer in a music school to a room with no escape-no doors except the ones the cops are guarding, no windowns, no secret trap doors. But when they hear a scream and a gun shot, they rush in to find that the killer has simply vanished.
This is where Rhyme, Sachs, and the rest of the usual crew (including a brief cameo from a certain character from The Devil's Teardrop!) step in. They soon deduce that the killer is or was a professional magician, and dub him "The Conjurer".
The Conjurer is by far the greatest villain Deaver has created. He is the epitome of evil genius, having covered each loose end long in advance of his killings. His chapters are the best ones-italicized speeches to an imaginary "revered audience" and addressing himself as his stage name, "Malerick", The Conjurer's massive ego is at once despicable and deviously enjoyable.
Some reviewers have complained that the novel is "unbelievable". Well the theme of the frickin novel is magic, what do you expect? And Deaver still explains the secrets behind the different magic featured it book, so I really don't know what people are complaining about.
These explanations about magic usually come from The Conjurer or a new character- Kara, a magician's assistant enlisted by Lincoln to help with the case. Kara is by far one of the best supporting characters Deaver has created, and is extremely entertaining, especially in her subplots with her mentor and her sick mother.
The other subplots- Sachs applying for a detective position, and a case involving a white supremacist group that Roland Bell is working on, are both nice diversions in between the Conjurer's killings, and lend nicely to the overall quality of the book.
The only complaints i would have is that, even though Rhyme is more prominent in this book than he was in The Stone Monkey (when Sonny Li stole the spotlight from him) he is still a rather static character with little to no character development. And lastly, regular fans of Deaver know to expect a lot of plot twists, but there are so many twists that at times it borders on the ridiculous. Its somewhat exceptable, as the main theme of the book is magic, but sometimes the reader will laugh out loud at the insane number of plot twists, mostly involving the Conjurer's motives and intentions.
Overall though, The Vanished Man is an exhilarating excursion into the realm of magic. 5 out of 5 stars.
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Summary: Magic
Review: This is a fabulously entertaining book. The reviews about the unrealistic nature of the plot are complete nonsense and miss the point. This is mystery and entertainment at its best. I have read all of Deaver's novels and The Vanished Man was definitely one of the best.
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Summary: Misdirection at its best!
Review: This is the latest book of Lincoln Rhyme series. Usually, Lincoln unveils and outwits the tricks and perps in his really smart style. However, a seasoned magician appeared before his invisible revered audience and hid his tricks neatly. So, I couldn't fathom the real target of this murderous lunatic until the last mystery-solving narrative started. This was done by his "misdirection" techniques which led Lincoln to many wrong alleys that led to nowhere near to the aim of his perp. However, this setting diminished none of his great career as a criminalist.
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