Book Review by Twilight

The Vanished Man by Jeffery Deaver

The Vanished Man is the fifth Lincoln Rhyme/Amelia Sachs novel. Rhyme, an accomplished criminalist and forensics expert, is a quadriplegic due to an accident suffered at a crime scene several years earlier, but has lost none of his edge when it comes to solving crimes. He depends on Sachs, a former runway model and now beat cop, to be his "legs" at a crime scene. As The Vanished Man begins, they are called to work on a murder that took place at a New York music school. The scene is unusual in that police were on the scene moments after the murder took place, and had the suspect trapped in a closed room, only to find upon entering that he had... vanished.

Rhyme and Sachs attack the case eagerly, Sachs because her promotion is on the line, and Rhyme because it's something different from any case he's ever encountered. Some clues surface such as bits of latex, make-up, chemicals and small "flash" explosives, which lead Rhyme to correctly surmise their suspect is a magician. But things take a turn for the worse as another murder is committed by the suspect they've come to know as "the Conjurer", this time leaving a body in a locked apartment. Again clues that suggest a magician are found, leading Sachs to seek out the help of a young apprentice magician named Kara to help identify some of the items. With Kara's help and some sharp deduction, they manage to interrupt the Conjurer in the midst of his third attempt at murder... only to have him slip away into a crowded circus , of all things, and disappear. Through investigating each crime scene, and with Kara's help, they discover that each act of murder, or attempt at it, is a recreation of a trick by some famous magician, suggesting to them somebody who never quite "made the big time" yet is quite adept.

Things are further complicated with the introduction of a minister sent to assassinate the attorney prosecuting a man belonging to a white supremacist group, who seems to have some tie to the Conjurer, though what it might be is unclear. And then the unthinkable... the Conjurer breaks into Rhyme's own apartment, setting a fire the quadriplegic has no way to escape from, only to have the fire stopped in the nick of time. So... did the Conjurer actually mean to kill Rhyme, or is this simply another attempt to throw them off the trail? Sachs questions Rhyme until he remembers vital pieces of information the Conjurer has mentioned, and they manage to tie it all together, leading them to the Cirque Fantastique, set up very near Rhyme's address. With Kara's help they piece together who the Conjurer really is, a man named Erick Weir. A man who just happens to have a grudge against the owner of Cirque Fantastique due to a fire at a former circus company, Weir's injury and the death of his wife in the blaze. Now we know why Weir never became famous in his own right... or do we?

Following lead after lead, they manage to unravel the clues and track Weir's plot to destroy Cirque Fantastique, stopping a bomb from going off on a crowded night... except that there is no real bomb, and the trail once again leads them to Charles Grady, the attorney prosecuting Constable, the white supremacist. Arriving at Grady's in time to catch Weir there, the police manage to arrest him and take him into custody, still unsure exactly what his ties to Grady might be. As other players in the white supremacist group are tracked down, Weir pulls the biggest magical misdirection yet... faking his own death in an escape attempt, and giving the slip yet again. As the police begin a desperate search to locate Weir, and protect Grady, they are mislead once again by another member of the supremacists making an attempt on Grady's life... while Constable attacks his lawyer in a ploy to escape, part of Weir's plan. The attempt is foiled by the arrival of Sachs, and Constable is still in custody, leaving Sachs and Rhyme to puzzle over what Weir's plan really is... an attempt to free Constable, or an attempt to assassinate Grady? Once again misdirected by Weir, the police are tied up with the attempted poisoning of Grady's young daughter, only to find she hasn't been poisoned after all... giving Weir ample time to make his next move.

And once more we find Weir at the Cirque Fantastique, the very place Sachs and Rhyme had first rejected as being too obvious... and it becomes apparent that all of Weir's other crimes had only been a smoke screen to cover his own agenda, the destruction of the circus and its owner, the man Weir holds responsible for his injury and the death of his wife. It seems all is lost as Sachs races to the circus, except that Kara is there waiting for the owner, and Rhyme has a trick or two up his own sleeve to catch the wily magician... who slips away from the circus thinking his revenge is complete, only to be greeted by the police at his own hiding place in the city...

I won't give away the very last twist in the plot, it caught me totally off guard and I hope it will do the same to whoever reads this book. Even after reading all of the Rhyme/Sachs books and several others by Deaver, he still manages to throw in something unexpected at the last minute. It's highly enjoyable for me, and I hope it will be for all of you too. A very good way to pass the time and not feed your brain the usual junk food of a best-seller...

Back to Reviews

Back to Main Page