Rating: 
Summary: The Boring Man
Review: This one seems to be getting high praise, but I think those reviews must be from established fans of Deaver or the genre itself. I found this novel to be extremely boring. Yes, there's much research into forensics and the magic business, but the author tends to talk down to the reader, which I find annoying. One example would be the over explaining of the classic illusion "Sawing A Woman In Half." Is there really anyone out there who doesn't know the basic theme of this well-known magic effect?In what is otherwise very stiff text, Deaver attempts to make the characters sound more natural by throwing in way too many contractions ("or is" becoming "or's") from every character. Contrived and distracting. Ridiculous turns of events and cardboard characters who all sound alike seem to be par for the course these days, but beyond that I just couldn't find anything of interest here.
Rating:
Summary: This book shouldn't disappear from the shelves!
Review: This was my 2nd Deaver novel. I forgot the first one I started, but that should be no surprise. I didn't finish that one either!
This plot is so far-fetched, so convoluted, so full of cardboard characters that I gave up on it after 175 pages. Too bad. It started out promising, a nice twist on tracking down a killer(s): He/she always had magic incorporated into the scheme. But this story just went on far too long (keep in mind, I didn't even finish it) and got so unconvincing and outrageous that I had to move on. So many books, so little time. I think my Deaver days are over. Give me Crais or Coben or David Ellis anyday.
Rating: 
Summary: An Engrossing Read
Review: This was my first book by Deaver. The plot was interesting due to the subject matter, namely a murderous magician. The book centers around a pyschopath magician who seemingly disappears into thin air post-murder. Rhyme and Sachs enlist a budding magician who assists them in tracking down the killer. Not without some interesting twists, at times this book seemed less like a book and more like a crime/drame television show.
Rating:
Summary: One, perhaps even 2, too many plot twists
Review: Three-quarters of the way through this novel, I thought that perhaps this was Jeffery Deaver's best. It really held my interest and I wanted to be reading it instead of working, driving, eating, sleeping, etc.
The characters were amazingly rich in detail. The story was one of those that had you learning something, guessing, edgy, and excited. This, as I said about three-quarters of the way through, is a great story, ... or so I thought.
There is no way the reader will have a chance to figure out the denouement, not because you are not smart enough, but because the plot twists at the end get kind of silly. It reminded me of that movie (wait, I have to look the name up on the Internet)"Murder by Death."
Still, if the last couple of chapters don't turn the reader completely off, it's still a good read. Remember, I gave it four stars.
My advice? Stop when it gets silly for you, because it gets even dumber. I wish I could give you the perfect page number to stop on, but I don't have the book anymore.
Rating: 
Summary: The Idiotic Man
Review: Well this one does it...I'm finally completely over Jeffery Deaver! Ok, Ok, I realize that these books are alot like a Roller Coaster in an amusement park and I should just take them all at face value but I just can't help but find my intelligence constantly insulted. This book in particular is very much like a snowball of utter stupidity careening downhill, all the while expanding and growing until critical mass is achieved and we the reader are engulfed in almost non stop implausible nonsense. I know we're all supposed to just shut up and go along for the ride, but this plot is WAY, WAY over the top. Why would the villian need to kill such a large number of people and create such a complex diversion when it would have been 5 times easier to just go directly at his objective and get away easily. The whole story here is incredible nonsense. On top of that, all of the series central figures ALWAYS come out completely unscathed so why should we EVER believe they are ever in any danger. Oh, and while I'm at it...what is this enormous ax that Jeffery Deaver has to grind with Christians? Anybody who's introduced into any of his books that's announced as a Christian always turns out to be some sinister villian. This book has a classic example: back woods, virtually illiterate redneck white supremisist hunter, who also teaches sunday school while his wife home schools is, quite naturally, a vicious hit man who would have no problem killing children. Typical! Hey Jeff, could you please write a book with a Muslim or Buddist villian? I dare you!!
| 
