The Empty Chair

From the #1 international bestselling author of The Bone Collector and The Devil´s Teardrop comes this spine-chilling thriller that pits renowned criminalist Lincoln Rhyme against the ultimate opponent--Amelia Sachs, his own brilliant protégée. A quadriplegic since a beam crushed his spinal cord years ago, Lincoln Rhyme is desperate to improve his condition and goes to the University of North Carolina Medical Center for high-risk experimental surgery. But he and Sachs have hardly settled in when the local authorities come calling. In a twenty-four-hour period, the sleepy Southern outpost of Tanner´s Corner has seen a local teen murdered and two young women abducted. And Rhyme and Sachs are the best chance to find the girls alive. The prime suspect is a peculiar teenaged truant known as the Insect Boy, so nicknamed for his disturbing obsession with bugs. Rhyme´s unsurpassed analytical skills and stellar forensic experience, combined with Sachs´s exceptional detective legwork, soon snare the perp. But even Rhyme can´t anticipate that Sachs will disagree with his crime analysis and that her vehemence will put her in the swampland, harboring the very suspect whom Rhyme considers a ruthless killer. So ensues Rhyme´s greatest challenge--facing the criminalist whom he has taught everything he knows in a battle of wits, forensics, and intuition. With the intricate forensic detail, breathtaking speed, and masterful plot twists that are signature Deaver, The Empty Chair is page-turning suspense of the highest order.