THE EMPTY CHAIR
By Jeffery Deaver
Simon & Schuster, $25
When forensics expert Lincoln Rhyme travels from New York to North Carolina to undergo experimental surgery for his paralysis, the last thing he’s thinking about is getting involved in a murder case. But when a local sheriff requests his help in solving a murder and two kidnappings, Rhyme and his protege, Amelia Sachs, get involved–and readers will be glad they did.
Sixteen-year-old Garrett Hanlon, locally known as the Insect Boy because of his fascination with bugs, is believed to have kidnapped two women and bludgeoned a man to death. Rhyme and Sachs start their usual routine, with him in a makeshift forensic lab looking at evidence while she’s in the field sending back reports.
Hanlon is caught before the book is barely at the midpoint, and then comes a neat twist: Sachs, believing in the boy’s innocence, breaks him out of jail, and the two go on the run, forcing Rhyme to use his skills against the person who knows him best.
While not quite up to Jeffery Deaver’s “The Coffin Dancer” or “The Bone Collector,” this new tale has plenty to recommend it: The rural setting is a nice change of pace, and the tension between Rhyme and Sachs gives this a lot of heat.
DEMOLITION ANGEL
By Robert Crais
Doubleday, $24.95
Three years since her partner and lover died in a bomb blast, Carol Starkey, a demolition expert for the Los Angeles police, cannot get through her workday without antidepressants and alcohol. But when another colleague in the bomb squad is killed by a blast, Starkey, with the help of an abrasive FBI agent, begins to investigate the crime and discovers that there’s a nut out there who is deliberately trying to kill bomb technicians.
While “Demolition Angel” works as a thriller, thanks in large part to Robert Crais’ savvy plotting, the book is also a tale of personal regeneration. Starkey, who is not the most likable protagonist to pop up in a suspense novel, is struggling with some terrible demons. That personal battle gives this story an extra edge and dimension.
CRADLE AND ALL
By James Patterson
Little, Brown, $25.95
When Anne Fitzgerald, an ex-nun turned detective, gets a call from the archbishop of Boston, she can barely believe that he wants her to investigate the pregnancy of a local teenager, Kathleen Beavier, who is a virgin. Making matters worse is the fact that when Beavier tried to get an abortion, she found her physician’s bloody body hanging from a hook at his clinic. Since then she has been hearing voices and believes that animals are watching her.
Meanwhile, in a small town in Ireland, another young virgin has become pregnant, and her condition is being investigated by the Vatican. It appears that both pregnancies are tied to a prophecy made by the Virgin Mary at the French shrine of Lourdes in 1917. One of these girls will bring Christ into the world, while the other will give birth to the Antichrist.
Long-time fans of James Patterson’s will recognize this plot as a not-so-subtle reworking of his earlier novel, “Virgin,” and that’s part of the book’s problem. In general, this kind of material seems a little old, and not likely to capture the imagination of too many readers.
LOST GIRLS
By Andrew Pyper
Delacorte, $23.95
Set in a desolate small town in northern Ontario, this debut novel by Andrew Pyper is a legal thriller and a ghost story.
It begins with the disappearance of two teenage girls who are last seen getting into the car of their English teacher, Thomas Tripp. The local district attorney charges Tripp with murder, even though the girls’ bodies are never found. For his defense, Tripp hires Bartholomew Crane, a brash, egotistical lawyer from Toronto who thinks getting an acquittal will be a snap. What he doesn’t bargain for is the cold shoulder he gets from locals while trying to gather background information on his client. Making matters creepier are his visions of a ghost walking the streets of the town and a telephone ringing down the hallway from his hotel room all night–a ringing that only Crane can hear.
With great skill, Pyper brings this material together into a genuinely surprising climax. An unusual and compelling novel by a new author who deserves notice.
NIGHTSHADE
By John Saul
Ballantine, $25.95
Fifteen-year-old Matt Moore is living an ideal childhood in rural New Hampshire until his ailing grandmother, Emily, moves into his family’s house. Within days of her arrival, Matt begins to sense the presence of another woman, who turns out to be his mother’s long-dead sister, Cynthia. In the meantime, Emily’s bizarre behavior and demands– such as insisting that the family re-create Cynthia’s bedroom–drive Matt’s stepfather, Bill, from the house. The stakes go up when Bill is shot in a hunting accident and suspicion for his death falls on Matt.
Is the spirit of Cynthia somehow behind the killing? Is Matt’s mother taking on the malevolent spirit of her dead sister? John Saul cranks up the tension by keeping readers off-balance until the last page, and while his prose is not particularly memorable, this strange story holds a certain fascination.
