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Wow. This book is definitely one of my Deaver favorites. The villain of this piece is a master illusionist, who puts on a horrifying but brilliant magic show involving murder, escapism, quick change, misdirection, sleight of hand and multiple other magician effects, staying one step ahead of Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs who pursue the villain through a series of fascinating venues such as a circus arena, a school of music, and the bottom of the river.Shorter than a some of the other Deaver novels, the Vanished Man is still packed with action, mysteries, twists, and engaging characters. Definitely worth a read, this book will keep you awake and entertained for a few thrilling hours (includes about 6 CDs worth of reading time).
But I was a little disappointed with the end. I loved this book. Great concept, great new characters, great twists. maybe one too many twists. It made the ending a bit confusing and unrealistic.Other than that, it was a great read and I'd highly recommend it.
I'm willing to "suspend disbelief" in the interest of a good novel, but this is too much. The plot line is so contrived and convoluted as to be preposterous. The characters are largely unexplored and there only to act out the plot, which again, is preposterous. There is some information about magic which is interesting if true, but it's not enough to redeem this ridiculous book.
Almost anything is fair in a mystery novel, except a lying external commentator. By the last chapter, it is simply tedious--the abrupt, senseless, and implausible twists no longer amuse.The major sections of the novel appear to be introduced by the chief perpetrator, as a circus announcer, implied to be an external commentator/guide to the story. It would almost be accurate to say that there is no plot, but rather just a random series of bizarre implausible plot twists.At first, "Vanished Man" is great fun, a fascinating introduction to the secrets of magic and illusion. So, readers of the novel cannot even believe Lincoln Rhyme.
But as a few amusing twists become an impenetrable maze, plausibility falls to zero, and half-way through the book, it ceases to be fun. You'll see few attempts at a summary of the plot among the reviews, and I won't try either. The penultimate scene, is the traditional one in which the detective invites the major participants to his drawing room, and through brilliant logic reveals the true, unexpected, perpetrator. But even that turns out to be a misunderstanding--Amelia is actually promoted to "detective". This is a standard "Deaver" device, which I happen to find objectionable.
Although the resulting twist would be more plausible than most twists in the story, it is also a fraud--a prank perpetuated by Rhyme. Just another twist too many.The book gets two stars for the fascinating introduction to magic and illusion. Of course, illusions are used to create misdirection and twists in the story. It is the perfect (almost) ending for this dreary novel.In the last scene, Amelia is suspended for a year. In the limited tradition of external commentators, the commentator is assumed to be an unbiased observer, or at least an observer with a known bias.
But in "Vanished Man", the commentator misdirects the reader in regard to his identity and motives. No surprise, it was all but a done deal before then, long expected. It would get one star for the story.
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. Don't get me wrong - I love plot twists, and I think they are essential to a good mystery.
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.
This is the first Lincoln Rhyme novel that I have read. Basically the murderer is doing this, this, this and this in order to do that, instead of simply doing that in the first place.
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.
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. I'll try some other authors before coming back to Jeffery Deaver.
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