Jeffery Deaver's The Vanished Man is his third or fourth Lincoln Rhyme novel. Lincoln Rhyme is a forensics specialist who along with his partner in anti-crime, Amanda Sachs, solve complex crimes via what else, forensics. Like
The Bone Collector (made into a movie starring Denzel Washington) and
The Coffin Dancer, the title of the book is the nickname for the suspect of the crimes. In this case, the Vanished Man is the perpetrator of a few murders in New York City that relies on magic and deception to both lure his potential victims and flee crimes. Such as a magician can appear to vanish from a stage, so does the Vanished Man from crime scenes.
The concept was very interesting initially and the first half of the book was great and typical of Deaver's other Lincoln Rhyme novels. Exciting crimes and the insightful analysis of evidence make for good reading. Unfortunately Deaver relied too much on the whole magic and deception angle and rather than just have this be the means for the suspect to outsmart the cops, it was also a gimmick for the author to outsmart the reader. This got tiring and caused the last third of the book to drag. Authors should realize that if there's 150 pages left in the book, the story probably isn't over and trying to setup the reader to believe it is doesn't work.
If you like television shows like CSI you'll like Lincoln Rhyme stories. Comparing the books to the CSI show is like comparing a Michael Crichton novel to a movie based on a Michael Crichton book. If this sounds appealing I strongly recommend you read the books in order of publication. Besides having more background on the characters, the others were great books. If you like them, just read this to keep up with the series.
