The Vanished Man: A Lincoln Rhyme Novel

I'm so disappointed in this book -- Deaver can do much better (read Stone Monkey or some earlier works). This book is TERRIBLE. The plot involves an insane magician whose wife is killed by a risky illusion -- or does it really? Just when you "think" you know who did it, the plot twists and turns in the most unbelievable ways possible. Illusions abound -- new consultants are brought in to help, but apparently only as a plot device to give the story more twists and turns than is necessary or tolerable. Once again, the villain breaks into Rhyme's apartment to put the criminalist in danger -- or does he? Again, another unnecessary plot twist and it stretches the bounds of disbelief -- how many times have we read about some villian slipping into Rhyme's bedroom to do him harm? This is the most at-risk homebound quadriplegic in all the world, certainly in all the literary world.
Amelia is back, too -- still griping about her arthritic knees, still fending off advances from every heterosexual male in the entire state of New York, and still driving her "yellow Corvette with a RACING HARNESS" through the streets of New York City at 90 miles an hour. And that's an exact quote from the book.
Overall the plot is too confusing, too long, too implausible. Deaver needs to go back to what made these stories interesting, the relationship between Sachs and Rhyme, but even that is becoming cliched. I think it might be time to either give Rhyme back his legs and have him "walking the grid" with Sachs or retire them both.
If you're interested in good fiction, check out Robert Crais.

I can't remember the last time I failed to finish reading a novel. I abandoned this one with 100 pages to go. With another implausible plot twist, I've had enough.

Maybe I've been spoiled by the quality of character driven fiction from George Pelecanos, James Lee Burke, Robert B parker, James Sallis, Scott Phillips, and Robert Crais but I suspect that this is not just a failure to connect with the characters and more to do with poor writing.

I've read quite a number of Deaver's novels and enjoyed the complex plots and the exploration of psychologically/psyciatrically devient chbaracters, but this is just over the top. When I came to the chapter that excplained how the magician faked his death while in custody, that was enough.

I have another fifty novels lined up waiting to be read and I'll be damned if I'm going to waste any more time on this poor one. For that matter, after six or so Lincoln Rhyme novels, I can't say that I really know or care anything about Lincoln or Saches.

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!!

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.

This is the first Lincoln Rhyme novel that I have read. I picked it after reading favourable reviews here on Amazon, and because I thought that the illusionist theme sounded interesting.

There were several things that I liked about the book. I did like how magic tricks were integrated with the story, and how you got to know how many tricks are carried out. I also liked the investigating duo Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs. And the book has its fair share of exciting action scenes.

But in the end I thought that there were a bit too many twists to the plot. Basically the murderer is doing this, this, this and this in order to do that, instead of simply doing that in the first place. Don't get me wrong - I love plot twists, and I think they are essential to a good mystery. But in this case I thought the twists became too fantastic.

I also thought that the deductions made by Lincoln Rhyme were too much in some places. It is fine to draw conclusions from the evidence, but at times it felt like too much was found out from too few clues.

It's an OK thriller, with a nice magician theme, but in the end the plot was too far-fetched for my liking. I'll try some other authors before coming back to Jeffery Deaver.

I've enjoyed all the Rhyme-Sachs novels so far. This one seems a little tired in the begining, as if Jeffrey Deaver's just going through the motions. Things do pick up in the final chapters, but it might be time to shake the series up a bit.

In the Vanished Man, a killer is using every trick in the magicians manual, to murder innocent victims, and to lead the police in one direction then another. Has Lincoln Rhyme meet his match?

At first, I found this book an enjoyable read. However, I felt, there were too many twists and turns, even by this author's standards. Some of the events and 'misdirections' (of which there is many!!) used by the killer seemed highly improbable to me, and had me thinking they were too far fetched, to be credible.

I felt this undermined the storyline, and as the book progressed, I found myself becoming less and less interested in what the final outcome would be. Not a terrible book, but, certainly not the best, from this author.

The last book I read was State of Fear by Michael Crichton and while that book was ok, I ended it feeling the need for a guaranteed good read.

Enter Jeffrey Deaver........I enjoyed this read far more than the Crichton book as Deaver has the ability to tell a story at a fast pace.

While the premise of the story is entertaining but preposterous (the Conjuror was just too good for too long), it made for a good read.

Don't read Deaver if you think you are going to get some hard-boiled crime like Walter Mosley or George Pelecanos, it doesn't have the descriptions of the surroundings like James Lee Burke but what Deaver is good at is telling a story that keeps one entertained.

Just leave your thrist for realism at the door and enjoy this book.

This book tracks the investigation into a killer whose crimes are staged as magic tricks and who can seem to vanish as he is being tracked by the police. For the most part, it is good, exciting read.

There are many instances in the book that the bad guy keeps getting away at the very last second when it looks like he has been captured. I know this is to add suspense to the book, but it is overused. It happens so many times that, at times, the book becomes formulistic and trite. Fortunately, there are still enough twists and turns in the plot that it is possible to overlook this problem. Indeed, the book is replete with cliffhangers to keep you up all night reading and with red herrings to keep you guessing until the end about the killer's true motives.

It is obvious that the Deaver did a lot of research into magic and illusions and craftly wove that research into the book. This certainly added to the believability of the book and added to the story.

This was my first "Lincoln Rhyme" mystery, and while the character is ceratinly fairly annoying and feels sorry for himself way too much, I will definitely read other Rhyme mysteries by Deaver. This book had enough excitement to make me want to come back for more.

Lots of magic and misdirection in this novel. It keeps your attention and keeps moving. Very entertaining and recommended reading for pure relaxation.