- Hardcover: 416 pages
- Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd; First edition (14 April 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0340734027
- ISBN-13: 978-0340734025
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.6 x 4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 539,489 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Vanished Man
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
When a gifted illusionist turns his hand to violent death, The Vanished Man is only one of a series of classic conjuring tricks that paralysed forensic investigator Lincoln Rhyme finds himself having to understand. More important even than the details of technique which Lincoln and his partner Amelia are taught by young illusionist Kara are the conjuror's habits of mind--misdirection piled on deceit piled on false leads. It is not just sleight of hand that deceives the eye; it is where the eye is tricked into looking. Is the killer who calls himself Malerik just after a sequence of showy violent deaths, or is that what he wants Lincoln to think?
This is an impressive addition to Deaver's much-praised sequence of novels about Lincoln and Amelia simply because they find themselves up against an equally intelligent killer with radically different ways of thinking. Their habits of logic and science and legwork are of limited use against someone who constantly stretches the limits of the improbable. Jeffrey Deaver has always been an ingenious thriller writer and this book returns to the sardonic wit of his earliest work as he too engages in endless trickery and confusion of our expectations. --Roz Kaveney
The Times
'The best psychological thriller writer around'
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs are back in town, this time to solve a baffling series of crimes committed by a master illusionist with a vengeance and a a double, nay, a triple agenda.
Deaver is, without doubt, the Man with the Master Plot who puts layer upon layer of deceit and illusion, and who sends his reader to all the wrong corners. Forensic science and the world of the great illusionists are coming to together in a whirlwind that leaves the reader (to his or her delight) in utter bewilderness.
But there is also something amiss here. In his earlier novels Deaver was as much interested in the interplay between the protagonists - the quadriplegic Rhyme and his 'eyes on foot', Amelia Sachs - as in plotting and scheming. But the forensic part of their relationship is almost perfunctorily done with here, and their personal interplay doesn't develop at all. In fact, the main protagonist, Kara (an iiluusionist who's helping Rhyme with his investigations), is much more interesting than our heroes, and that leaves this novel rather uneven.
Besides, there is more than an echo of Carol O'Connell's brilliant themes about the world of crime & illusion (i.e. "Shellgame") than I would care to read, and, frankly, O'Connell is much, much better in this area.
Nevertheless, Deaver's latest is highly entertaining and certainly a must for his fans, and so much better than 'The Blue Nowhere'.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Deaver's penchant for playing games with his audience gets the better of him just as the Conjuror gets his comeuppance in this convoluted thriller. The mind games, coincidences and plot twists become ridiculous, laughable even - even more camp than Sherlock Holmes' worst excesses. There's no real menace -the trouble with established heroes like rhyme and sachs is that you know they're indestructible, so why use them as targets - deaver should create sympathetic victims and build up menace and tension. Sadly, despite the meticulous research into magic and illusion this sleight piece of escapism turned out to be written for a young teen audience and is very far away from the gripping Bone Collector.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Could not put this book down. The plot was amazing and every time that I thought I new it all - it changed. Made the magical world seem more magical. Made the scientific world seem more complicated. Made me see that good will win over bad and that the baddie will be given justice in one way or another. Goodness me! Buy It, Read It, Enjoy It
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Brilliant
Brilliant book, well written and keeps you guessing right up till the end, then you sit back and think, Wow!!
Published 7 days ago by Michael Bodenham
The Vanished Man
The Vanished Man really impressed me, I thought it was a brilliant book and one of the best in the Lincoln Rhyme series from what I've read. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Duane
Great book
Excellent author. The book keeps yu gripped from the beginning. Part of a collection of Lincoln rhyme storys. All brilliant.
Published 4 months ago by Sally
magical mystery tour
I agree with others that this is a really good book with a blend of magic and detection and has a disabled hero that uses his one great asset -his brain to solve the series of... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Anthony Cattani
Thrilling, but too twisty even for Deaver!
A usual page turning, thrilling Deaver full of unexpected twists. The added storyline that the hunted is a magician with first class skills of vanishing and illusion. Read more
Published 12 months ago by C. BROWN
No more JD for me
The four previous authors I had read prior to Jeffery Deaver were Dennis Lehane, Robert Crais, R J Ellory and Michael Connelly, all good crime thriller writers. Read more
Published 14 months ago by E. Isted
Great escapism
This was a fantastic book.
It was informative about the various forms of Magic (in their broadest sense) a plot which was gripping and characters which kept the pace... Read more
It was informative about the various forms of Magic (in their broadest sense) a plot which was gripping and characters which kept the pace... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Jonathan Clark
He's written better books than this...
Really disappointed, I have read quite a few Deaver books but this one wasn't up to his usual standard.
Found the story really hard to get into. Read more
Found the story really hard to get into. Read more
Published 19 months ago by LMS72
vanished man
just like his books featuring lincoln rhyme, jeffrey deaver never disappoints. i just love his main character. Read more
Published 24 months ago by R. Obina
Utter Brilliance
As the review title says, Utter Brilliance! I don't expect to get a "yes this was helpful" tick for this review but it's all already been said but I just had to add my five stars... Read more
Published on 21 July 2009 by Ms Telford
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