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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). 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. Wow. This book is definitely one of my Deaver favorites.
maybe one too many twists. But I was a little disappointed with the end. It made the ending a bit confusing and unrealistic.Other than that, it was a great read and I'd highly recommend it. I loved this book. Great concept, great new characters, great twists.
There is some information about magic which is interesting if true, but it's not enough to redeem this ridiculous book. The characters are largely unexplored and there only to act out the plot, which again, is preposterous. 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.
Of course, illusions are used to create misdirection and twists in the story. 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". You'll see few attempts at a summary of the plot among the reviews, and I won't try either. Just another twist too many.The book gets two stars for the fascinating introduction to magic and illusion. Almost anything is fair in a mystery novel, except a lying external commentator. It would get one star for the story.
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. No surprise, it was all but a done deal before then, long expected. It is the perfect (almost) ending for this dreary novel.In the last scene, Amelia is suspended for a year. This is a standard "Deaver" device, which I happen to find objectionable. So, readers of the novel cannot even believe Lincoln Rhyme.
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. Although the resulting twist would be more plausible than most twists in the story, it is also a fraud--a prank perpetuated by Rhyme. But in "Vanished Man", the commentator misdirects the reader in regard to his identity and motives. 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. 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.
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. 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. 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. 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. 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'll try some other authors before coming back to Jeffery Deaver. I did like how magic tricks were integrated with the story, and how you got to know how many tricks are carried out.
I also liked the investigating duo Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs.
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