悬疑
Gone for Good 豆瓣
作者:
Harlan Coben
publishing house:
Dell
2003
- 3
Amazon.com
"The ugliest truth, in the end, was still better than the prettiest of lies." So says Will Klein, whose search for his missing and allegedly murderous brother, Ken, leaves him doubting the actions of everybody he's ever loved.
Eleven years ago, Ken fled his family's suburban New Jersey neighborhood after Will's ex-girlfriend, Julie Miller, was raped and strangled. The Kleins eventually convinced themselves that Ken perished on the lam. But as Will discovers, the facts are not so simple. On her deathbed, his mother tells him that Ken is still alive. Then Will's girlfriend and "soul mate" disappears too, only to have her fingerprints turn up at a New Mexico homicide scene. How are these tragedies connected? And what's their relationship to the recent appearance of a contract killer known as the Ghost? With help from an abused ex-hooker, a former white supremacist turned yoga guru, and Julie's younger sister, Will finds himself in a tightly twisted plot that turns on double identities and misplaced trust and that forces him to dig for the courage he was always sure he lacked.
Although the premise sounds much like that of Harlan Coben's last book, the acclaimed Tell No One, and the books' ingenuous protagonists are nearly interchangeable, Gone for Good quickly establishes its separate but equally suspenseful identity. This is a tale of manifold deceptions guaranteed to show its readers up as suckers, and to make them love every moment of the experience. --J. Kingston Pierce --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
"We never forget our first love. Mine ended up being murdered." Newcomers and fans alike will know they're deep in Coben country with the author's ninth book, in which a counselor of runaways with his own history of broken hearts and death finds himself caught in a web of lost identities, forgotten nemeses and smoldering grudges. Will Klein was a nice Jewish boy from a nice Jersey suburb until his ex-girlfriend was found strangled next door and his brother became an international fugitive. Eleven years later, as his mother succumbs to cancer, Will gets the deathbed confession that his brother, Ken, is alive; around the same time, his girlfriend, Sheila (herself a runaway with a "murky past"), disappears and a neighborhood psycho called the Ghost resurfaces. Will is yanked into an FBI investigation via his friend Squares (a yogi whose forehead tattoo carries multiple meanings), which jumbles up the aforementioned cast of characters with another mystery occurring in the Midwest. True to form, Coben keeps the plot twists coming fast and furious, and readers will give up trying to guess the outcome quite early on; yet the book's entertainment value lies less in its plot than its characters. From the New York streetwalker Raquel ("Many transvestites are beautiful. Raquel was not. He was black, six-six, and comfortably on the north side of three hundred pounds") to Belmont, Neb.'s Sheriff Bertha Farrow ("Murder scenes were bad, but for overall vomit-inducing, bone-crunching, head-splitting, blood-splattering grossness, it was hard to beat the metal-against-flesh effect of an old-fashioned automobile accident"), this title delivers.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
"The ugliest truth, in the end, was still better than the prettiest of lies." So says Will Klein, whose search for his missing and allegedly murderous brother, Ken, leaves him doubting the actions of everybody he's ever loved.
Eleven years ago, Ken fled his family's suburban New Jersey neighborhood after Will's ex-girlfriend, Julie Miller, was raped and strangled. The Kleins eventually convinced themselves that Ken perished on the lam. But as Will discovers, the facts are not so simple. On her deathbed, his mother tells him that Ken is still alive. Then Will's girlfriend and "soul mate" disappears too, only to have her fingerprints turn up at a New Mexico homicide scene. How are these tragedies connected? And what's their relationship to the recent appearance of a contract killer known as the Ghost? With help from an abused ex-hooker, a former white supremacist turned yoga guru, and Julie's younger sister, Will finds himself in a tightly twisted plot that turns on double identities and misplaced trust and that forces him to dig for the courage he was always sure he lacked.
Although the premise sounds much like that of Harlan Coben's last book, the acclaimed Tell No One, and the books' ingenuous protagonists are nearly interchangeable, Gone for Good quickly establishes its separate but equally suspenseful identity. This is a tale of manifold deceptions guaranteed to show its readers up as suckers, and to make them love every moment of the experience. --J. Kingston Pierce --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
"We never forget our first love. Mine ended up being murdered." Newcomers and fans alike will know they're deep in Coben country with the author's ninth book, in which a counselor of runaways with his own history of broken hearts and death finds himself caught in a web of lost identities, forgotten nemeses and smoldering grudges. Will Klein was a nice Jewish boy from a nice Jersey suburb until his ex-girlfriend was found strangled next door and his brother became an international fugitive. Eleven years later, as his mother succumbs to cancer, Will gets the deathbed confession that his brother, Ken, is alive; around the same time, his girlfriend, Sheila (herself a runaway with a "murky past"), disappears and a neighborhood psycho called the Ghost resurfaces. Will is yanked into an FBI investigation via his friend Squares (a yogi whose forehead tattoo carries multiple meanings), which jumbles up the aforementioned cast of characters with another mystery occurring in the Midwest. True to form, Coben keeps the plot twists coming fast and furious, and readers will give up trying to guess the outcome quite early on; yet the book's entertainment value lies less in its plot than its characters. From the New York streetwalker Raquel ("Many transvestites are beautiful. Raquel was not. He was black, six-six, and comfortably on the north side of three hundred pounds") to Belmont, Neb.'s Sheriff Bertha Farrow ("Murder scenes were bad, but for overall vomit-inducing, bone-crunching, head-splitting, blood-splattering grossness, it was hard to beat the metal-against-flesh effect of an old-fashioned automobile accident"), this title delivers.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
13 67 谷歌图书
9.2 (172 个评分)
作者:
陳浩基
publishing house:
皇冠
2014
- 6
其它标题:
一三六七
我們以為自己走在正確的道路上,
為什麼走著走著,人生卻變了樣?
第一本讓我們感到驕傲的華文警察小說最高傑作!
一組數字,六個片斷,
構成一位警探的故事,
一座城市的故事,
一個時代的故事……
四個月之前,沒有人想到這個城市會有這樣的改變!
因為一樁糾紛,蔓延成暴動,整個城市陷入蠢蠢不安,危機一觸即發。
有人怒吼著抗爭,想要改變現狀,也有人只是默默希望一個穩定的未來,而他徘徊在兩個極端之間,站在界線上。
曾經,他嚮往成為一名警察,只是身處在這個動盪的時代裡,讓他不得不打消念頭。
沒想到,偶然間聽到的一句話,竟把他捲進危險的漩渦,彷彿命中注定要跟警察同進退。
但他更沒想到的是,他和身邊的人都想反抗自己的命運,卻從此走上天差地遠的道路……
這是一部讓你想向作者脫帽致敬的小說!新生代作家陳浩基為我們展現了他無比的潛力和企圖心,六個短篇串連出一位警探傳奇的一生,充滿意外性與戲劇性的情節,緊緊扣住我們的脈息,而在虛實交錯的故事中,我們看見了關於使命、關於服從、關於公義與自由的叩問,更看見個人的抉擇、時代的移轉、城市的變遷,如何深深地在命運的畫布上烙下斑駁的印痕。
為什麼走著走著,人生卻變了樣?
第一本讓我們感到驕傲的華文警察小說最高傑作!
一組數字,六個片斷,
構成一位警探的故事,
一座城市的故事,
一個時代的故事……
四個月之前,沒有人想到這個城市會有這樣的改變!
因為一樁糾紛,蔓延成暴動,整個城市陷入蠢蠢不安,危機一觸即發。
有人怒吼著抗爭,想要改變現狀,也有人只是默默希望一個穩定的未來,而他徘徊在兩個極端之間,站在界線上。
曾經,他嚮往成為一名警察,只是身處在這個動盪的時代裡,讓他不得不打消念頭。
沒想到,偶然間聽到的一句話,竟把他捲進危險的漩渦,彷彿命中注定要跟警察同進退。
但他更沒想到的是,他和身邊的人都想反抗自己的命運,卻從此走上天差地遠的道路……
這是一部讓你想向作者脫帽致敬的小說!新生代作家陳浩基為我們展現了他無比的潛力和企圖心,六個短篇串連出一位警探傳奇的一生,充滿意外性與戲劇性的情節,緊緊扣住我們的脈息,而在虛實交錯的故事中,我們看見了關於使命、關於服從、關於公義與自由的叩問,更看見個人的抉擇、時代的移轉、城市的變遷,如何深深地在命運的畫布上烙下斑駁的印痕。
第歐根尼變奏曲 豆瓣 Goodreads
8.1 (36 个评分)
作者:
陳浩基
publishing house:
皇冠
2019
- 1
當惡魔的爪牙攫取了我的靈魂,
當窺伺的快意盤據了我的內心,
第歐根尼的狂想再次變奏,
化為一篇篇幽暗暴烈的死亡旋律……
〈窺伺藍色的藍〉
藍宥唯的內心蠢蠢欲動著,現實中的他沒有力爭上游的動力,但在網路的一隅,他正享受著在黑暗中窺伺目標的快感,準備向「深藍小屋」裡那名毫無防備的女子伸出魔掌……
〈時間就是金錢〉
在「時間交易中心」裡,時間可以換取金錢。為了贏得美人芳心,馬立文二話不說,就將42天的時間換成了2萬元!然而當他的美夢即將實現,人生卻從此再也無法回頭……
〈作家出道殺人事件〉
「想出道,先殺一個人看看!」中年編輯對想要成為作家的青年這麼說。青年對這個大叔的話半信半疑,但在得知名滿天下的推理作家們也都曾經殺過人之後,青年決定接受編輯的建議。只是……該殺誰好呢?
〈咖啡與香菸〉
醒來的我覺得好累……這是哪裡?現在是幾點?我好想喝杯咖啡,但周圍的人卻對我的渴望感到恐懼與不解。現在的我身在一個怪異的世界:小孩子可以抽菸,但咖啡卻被嚴格禁止……
〈隱身的X〉
教授發起了一場推理遊戲:只要找出隱藏身分的助教X,就能取得優異成績。代號鴨舌帽、曼聯、倖田來未、和尚、熊貓眼、胖虎、落湯雞和冰咖啡等參加者紛紛使出渾身解數,沒想到遊戲卻逐漸陷入失控的深淵……
當窺伺的快意盤據了我的內心,
第歐根尼的狂想再次變奏,
化為一篇篇幽暗暴烈的死亡旋律……
〈窺伺藍色的藍〉
藍宥唯的內心蠢蠢欲動著,現實中的他沒有力爭上游的動力,但在網路的一隅,他正享受著在黑暗中窺伺目標的快感,準備向「深藍小屋」裡那名毫無防備的女子伸出魔掌……
〈時間就是金錢〉
在「時間交易中心」裡,時間可以換取金錢。為了贏得美人芳心,馬立文二話不說,就將42天的時間換成了2萬元!然而當他的美夢即將實現,人生卻從此再也無法回頭……
〈作家出道殺人事件〉
「想出道,先殺一個人看看!」中年編輯對想要成為作家的青年這麼說。青年對這個大叔的話半信半疑,但在得知名滿天下的推理作家們也都曾經殺過人之後,青年決定接受編輯的建議。只是……該殺誰好呢?
〈咖啡與香菸〉
醒來的我覺得好累……這是哪裡?現在是幾點?我好想喝杯咖啡,但周圍的人卻對我的渴望感到恐懼與不解。現在的我身在一個怪異的世界:小孩子可以抽菸,但咖啡卻被嚴格禁止……
〈隱身的X〉
教授發起了一場推理遊戲:只要找出隱藏身分的助教X,就能取得優異成績。代號鴨舌帽、曼聯、倖田來未、和尚、熊貓眼、胖虎、落湯雞和冰咖啡等參加者紛紛使出渾身解數,沒想到遊戲卻逐漸陷入失控的深淵……
寂寞的频率 豆瓣
さみしさの周波数
7.6 (23 个评分)
作者:
[日] 乙一
译者:
杨爽
/
秦刚
publishing house:
浙江人民出版社
2020
- 10
★一本关于孤独和深情的白色故事集。
等待是寂寞,孤独是寂寞,遗憾是寂寞,成全是寂寞。我们相遇,也是因为寂寞。
★日本推理鬼才作家乙一热门代表作!青春与邪恶的交织的推理杰作!4篇极具诡谲、温情风格的热门短篇,揭露“白乙一”温柔、明亮、孤独,不为人知的另一面。
《未来预报》具有预言能力的男孩对我说出那句话之后,我们的人生从此转变......
《胶卷中的少女》胶卷中叫着我名字的“贞子”,在视频里慢慢的转过头,老师......你怎么了?
《小偷抓住的手》为了偷窃悄悄伸进墙缝中的手,抓住的不是钞票也不是珠宝,而是另一只手?
《失去的世界》当我成为一个植物人,究竟该怎么做,才能找到一个让大家获得幸福的方法?
★日本推理届顶级全能作家——乙一,日式美学“美与暴烈”的集大成者!
16岁即写出轰动日本文坛的推理巅峰之作!日本推理届ZUI具影响力的全能模范作家、日本推理“奥斯卡”本格推理大奖得主。
★重磅新装上市,封面迭新,国内顶级设计师操刀,颠覆以往阴郁风格。
全新青春治愈系外封,深邃暗黑质感内封,展现白乙一ACGN顶级人物的全能风采。
★口碑比肩东野圭吾、宫部美雪、伊坂幸太郎的日本推理作家,小野不由美、我孙子武丸、法月纶太郎等日本知名推理大家联袂力荐。1000000+日本读者一致好评,掀起“乙一热”的狂潮。
等待是寂寞,孤独是寂寞,遗憾是寂寞,成全是寂寞。我们相遇,也是因为寂寞。
★日本推理鬼才作家乙一热门代表作!青春与邪恶的交织的推理杰作!4篇极具诡谲、温情风格的热门短篇,揭露“白乙一”温柔、明亮、孤独,不为人知的另一面。
《未来预报》具有预言能力的男孩对我说出那句话之后,我们的人生从此转变......
《胶卷中的少女》胶卷中叫着我名字的“贞子”,在视频里慢慢的转过头,老师......你怎么了?
《小偷抓住的手》为了偷窃悄悄伸进墙缝中的手,抓住的不是钞票也不是珠宝,而是另一只手?
《失去的世界》当我成为一个植物人,究竟该怎么做,才能找到一个让大家获得幸福的方法?
★日本推理届顶级全能作家——乙一,日式美学“美与暴烈”的集大成者!
16岁即写出轰动日本文坛的推理巅峰之作!日本推理届ZUI具影响力的全能模范作家、日本推理“奥斯卡”本格推理大奖得主。
★重磅新装上市,封面迭新,国内顶级设计师操刀,颠覆以往阴郁风格。
全新青春治愈系外封,深邃暗黑质感内封,展现白乙一ACGN顶级人物的全能风采。
★口碑比肩东野圭吾、宫部美雪、伊坂幸太郎的日本推理作家,小野不由美、我孙子武丸、法月纶太郎等日本知名推理大家联袂力荐。1000000+日本读者一致好评,掀起“乙一热”的狂潮。
The Poet 豆瓣
作者:
Michael Connelly
publishing house:
Allen and Unwin
2009
The apparent suicide of his policeman brother sets Denver crime reporter Jack McEvoy on edge. Surprise at the circumstances of his brother's death prompts Jack to look into a whole series of police suicides and puts him on the trail of a cop-killer whose victims are selected all too carefully. Not only that, but they all leave suicide notes drawn from the poems of writer Edgar Allan Poe in their wake. More frightening still the killer appears to know that Jack is getting nearer and nearer. An investigation that looks like being the story of a lifetime, might also be Jack's ticket to a lonely end.
Death on the Nile 豆瓣
Beloved detective Hercule Poirot embarks on a journey to Egypt in one of Agatha Christie’s most famous mysteries, Death on the Nile.
The tranquility of a cruise along the Nile was shattered by the discovery that Linnet Ridgeway had been shot through the head. She was young, stylish, and beautiful. A girl who had everything...until she lost her life.
Hercule Poirot recalled an earlier outburst by a fellow passenger: "I'd like to put my dear little pistol against her head and just press the trigger." Yet in this exotic setting nothing is ever quite what it seems.
The tranquility of a cruise along the Nile was shattered by the discovery that Linnet Ridgeway had been shot through the head. She was young, stylish, and beautiful. A girl who had everything...until she lost her life.
Hercule Poirot recalled an earlier outburst by a fellow passenger: "I'd like to put my dear little pistol against her head and just press the trigger." Yet in this exotic setting nothing is ever quite what it seems.
Sleeping Doll 豆瓣
作者:
Jeffrey Deaver
publishing house:
Simon & Schuster Export
2007
- 6
Ten years ago in California, Daniel Pell, a self-styled Charles Manson, was sentenced to life in prison for murdering an entire family -- husband, wife, and two children, plus one of his young male followers. He is brought to Salinas, California, to interview with Kathryn Dance after he is implicated in yet another killing. Things go terribly wrong during an interview break and Pell, after badly injuring a fellow California Bureau of Investigation agent and murdering several bystanders, escapes. The late murder implication was just one of his many schemes, allowing him to travel outside of his high-security prison -- and continue to kill of the outside. It's up to Kathryn Dance, aided by her CBI partners, a Monterey County detective, and a brilliant FBI agent specializing in cult mentality. Hungry on his trail, Dance enlists three of Pell's former female followers, now raising families and leading normal lives, as well as the one surviving family member in the initial killing. Only eight years old at the time, she survived asleep in her bed, obscured by her toys and stuffed animals, prompting the press to call her "The Sleeping Doll." Now eighteen, this girl may have clues about Pell. Full of Deaver's trademark plot twists, Dance and the police know that Pell didn't escape from jail in search of freedom, and they must stop him before he kills again.
网内人 豆瓣 Goodreads 谷歌图书
8.1 (182 个评分)
作者:
陈浩基
publishing house:
九州出版社
2019
- 8
其它标题:
网內人
14岁的女中学生曲雅雯死了,她从二十二楼坠下,警察说是自杀,但她的姐姐阿怡知道,小雯是被“杀死”的。毕竟她在去世前,才因为一起性骚扰案遭到网络霸凌,姓名、学校都被公开,一个网名“kidkit727”的网民以骚扰犯外甥的名义对她发动攻击,声称她是诬告。小雯每天忍受着网友不 堪的辱骂和陌生人恶毒的眼光。为找出背后攻击小雯致使她自杀的始作俑者,阿怡找上了神秘的阿涅,阿涅茧居在破落的旧大楼里,生活邋遢、性情乖戾,却拥有超凡的黑客技术。他很快缩小了调查范围,推断幕后黑手就隐藏在小雯身边,小雯的死会是校园霸凌的恶性后果吗?
但随着真相一层层剥开,阿怡心底那个“妹妹”的形象却渐渐模糊。不知不觉中,她陷入亲情与谎言的迷障里无法抽身,而罪与罚的天平也开始倾斜,急速倒向难以意料的结局。
但随着真相一层层剥开,阿怡心底那个“妹妹”的形象却渐渐模糊。不知不觉中,她陷入亲情与谎言的迷障里无法抽身,而罪与罚的天平也开始倾斜,急速倒向难以意料的结局。
The Empty Chair 豆瓣
作者:
Jeffery Deaver
publishing house:
Pocket Books (Mm)
2001
- 1
Book Description
Quadriplegic detective Lincoln Rhyme is asked to find a menacing kidnapper while visiting a renowned hospital in a small North Carolina town. While Lincoln has his own suspicions about who the perpetrator might be, so does his love and protegee Amelia Sachs. As the two lovers go head to head in a desperate battle of wits, their loyalty is tested as rigorously as their investigative skills.
Reviews
The Empty Chair is the third - or, if you count a guest appearance in the millennial thriller The Devil's Teardrop, the fourth - novel to feature Lincoln Rhyme, the irascible forensic genius who became a quadriplegic when a cave-in at a crime scene damaged his spinal cord beyond repair. The series began in 1997 with The Bone Collector, which was recently made into a so-so film starring Denzel Washington. Every Rhyme novel to date has been characterized by authentic forensic detail and wild, even extravagant plotting, and the latest entry is no exception. The Empty Chair may, in fact, be the single trickiest suspense novel published so far this year.
Unlike earlier volumes, The Empty Chair takes place outside of New York City in the bucolic but sinister environs of Paquenoke County, North Carolina. Rhyme - accompanied by his long-suffering physical therapist, Thom, and his beloved forensic assistant, Amelia Sachs - has just been accepted as a patient at the Medical Center of the University of North Carolina, where he is scheduled to undergo an experimental procedure that might increase the range of his mobility but might, on the other hand, result in his death. Shortly after his arrival, Lincoln's plans are disrupted by an unforeseen emergency. Jim Bell, Paquenoke County sheriff, has trouble on his hands and needs Lincoln's expertise.
According to Bell, a disturbed teenager - known, for reasons that become graphically clear, as the Insect Boy - has murdered a local football hero and abductedtwoyoung women. Convinced that the women have only hours to live, Bell asks Lincoln to examine the trace evidence found at the abduction site in the faint hope of pinpointing the kidnapper's location. Though he knows nothing about the physical composition of the surrounding area - he and Sachs, as he repeatedly comments, are "fish out of water" in the American South - Rhyme agrees to help. Once again using Amelia Sachs as his eyes and legs, he sets up an ad hoc forensic lab in a borrowed corner of the local Sheriff's office and goes to work.
This sort of scenario - a crazed killer, a race against time, a scattered handful of clues - offers more than enough drama to fuel any number of traditional suspense novels. In The Empty Chair, however, this same scenario is merely the first level of a complex, multitiered mystery that constantly confounds our most fundamental expectations. The first indication that The Empty Chair contains unexpected depths comes when Lincoln, flawlessly interpreting his disparate bits of evidence, locates both the Insect Boy (Garrett Hanlon) and his most recent victim (an oncology nurse named Lydia Johannsen) within the first 150 pages. At that point, Deaver throws away the rulebook.
After talking with Garrett Hanlon in the Paquenoke County jail, Amelia develops the instinctive sense that Garrett might, as he continually claims, be a victim, and that another unidentified killer might still be at large. In a moment of intuitive - and reckless - empathy, Amelia abandons her professional principles and escapes with Garrett, determined both to prove the boy's innocence and rescue the remaining victim, a local history student named Mary Beth McConnell. From this point forward, almost nothing that happens in The Empty Chair is even remotely predictable.
It would spoil too many of the carefully constructed surprises to reveal the plot in any more detail. Suffice it to say that the narrative - which seems, at first, a simple but effective chase story - broadens and deepens to become something stranger and infinitely more complex. Throwing a varied assortment of people and elements into the mix - a trio of Deliverance-style rednecks, an emotionally scarred cancer survivor, a revisionist account of the Lost Colony of Roanoke, an apparently deranged deputy sheriff, a pair of incipient rapists, the hidden motivations of a wealthy industrialist, and the tragic history of Tanner's Corner, a "town without children" - Deaver constructs an artful, entertaining melodrama that has much to say about the destructive consequences of uncontrolled greed.
If The Empty Chair has a besetting weakness, it is Deaver's relentless determination to dazzle the reader with his narrative sleight of hand, piling on an endless, constantly escalating series of shocks, surprises, and unexpected twists that might, in a lesser writer's hands, have become just a bit too much. But Deaver, as usual, is a consummate professional, and he holds it all together with the ease and assurance of a natural storyteller. Readers familiar with the earlier adventures of Lincoln Rhyme will be lining up for this one, which seems likely to attract a substantial number of new readers, as well. The Empty Chair is Jeffery Deaver at his best and most devious and is recommended, without reservation, to anyone in search of intelligent, high-adrenaline entertainment.
-Bill Sheehan
Quadriplegic detective Lincoln Rhyme is asked to find a menacing kidnapper while visiting a renowned hospital in a small North Carolina town. While Lincoln has his own suspicions about who the perpetrator might be, so does his love and protegee Amelia Sachs. As the two lovers go head to head in a desperate battle of wits, their loyalty is tested as rigorously as their investigative skills.
Reviews
The Empty Chair is the third - or, if you count a guest appearance in the millennial thriller The Devil's Teardrop, the fourth - novel to feature Lincoln Rhyme, the irascible forensic genius who became a quadriplegic when a cave-in at a crime scene damaged his spinal cord beyond repair. The series began in 1997 with The Bone Collector, which was recently made into a so-so film starring Denzel Washington. Every Rhyme novel to date has been characterized by authentic forensic detail and wild, even extravagant plotting, and the latest entry is no exception. The Empty Chair may, in fact, be the single trickiest suspense novel published so far this year.
Unlike earlier volumes, The Empty Chair takes place outside of New York City in the bucolic but sinister environs of Paquenoke County, North Carolina. Rhyme - accompanied by his long-suffering physical therapist, Thom, and his beloved forensic assistant, Amelia Sachs - has just been accepted as a patient at the Medical Center of the University of North Carolina, where he is scheduled to undergo an experimental procedure that might increase the range of his mobility but might, on the other hand, result in his death. Shortly after his arrival, Lincoln's plans are disrupted by an unforeseen emergency. Jim Bell, Paquenoke County sheriff, has trouble on his hands and needs Lincoln's expertise.
According to Bell, a disturbed teenager - known, for reasons that become graphically clear, as the Insect Boy - has murdered a local football hero and abductedtwoyoung women. Convinced that the women have only hours to live, Bell asks Lincoln to examine the trace evidence found at the abduction site in the faint hope of pinpointing the kidnapper's location. Though he knows nothing about the physical composition of the surrounding area - he and Sachs, as he repeatedly comments, are "fish out of water" in the American South - Rhyme agrees to help. Once again using Amelia Sachs as his eyes and legs, he sets up an ad hoc forensic lab in a borrowed corner of the local Sheriff's office and goes to work.
This sort of scenario - a crazed killer, a race against time, a scattered handful of clues - offers more than enough drama to fuel any number of traditional suspense novels. In The Empty Chair, however, this same scenario is merely the first level of a complex, multitiered mystery that constantly confounds our most fundamental expectations. The first indication that The Empty Chair contains unexpected depths comes when Lincoln, flawlessly interpreting his disparate bits of evidence, locates both the Insect Boy (Garrett Hanlon) and his most recent victim (an oncology nurse named Lydia Johannsen) within the first 150 pages. At that point, Deaver throws away the rulebook.
After talking with Garrett Hanlon in the Paquenoke County jail, Amelia develops the instinctive sense that Garrett might, as he continually claims, be a victim, and that another unidentified killer might still be at large. In a moment of intuitive - and reckless - empathy, Amelia abandons her professional principles and escapes with Garrett, determined both to prove the boy's innocence and rescue the remaining victim, a local history student named Mary Beth McConnell. From this point forward, almost nothing that happens in The Empty Chair is even remotely predictable.
It would spoil too many of the carefully constructed surprises to reveal the plot in any more detail. Suffice it to say that the narrative - which seems, at first, a simple but effective chase story - broadens and deepens to become something stranger and infinitely more complex. Throwing a varied assortment of people and elements into the mix - a trio of Deliverance-style rednecks, an emotionally scarred cancer survivor, a revisionist account of the Lost Colony of Roanoke, an apparently deranged deputy sheriff, a pair of incipient rapists, the hidden motivations of a wealthy industrialist, and the tragic history of Tanner's Corner, a "town without children" - Deaver constructs an artful, entertaining melodrama that has much to say about the destructive consequences of uncontrolled greed.
If The Empty Chair has a besetting weakness, it is Deaver's relentless determination to dazzle the reader with his narrative sleight of hand, piling on an endless, constantly escalating series of shocks, surprises, and unexpected twists that might, in a lesser writer's hands, have become just a bit too much. But Deaver, as usual, is a consummate professional, and he holds it all together with the ease and assurance of a natural storyteller. Readers familiar with the earlier adventures of Lincoln Rhyme will be lining up for this one, which seems likely to attract a substantial number of new readers, as well. The Empty Chair is Jeffery Deaver at his best and most devious and is recommended, without reservation, to anyone in search of intelligent, high-adrenaline entertainment.
-Bill Sheehan
The Coffin Dancer 豆瓣
作者:
Jeffery Deaver
publishing house:
Pocket Books
1999
- 3
NYPD criminalist Lincoln Rhyme joins his beautiful protege, Amelia Sachs, in the hunt for the Coffin Dancer -- an ingenious killer who changes appearance even faster than he adds to his trail of victims. They have only one clue: the madman has a tattoo of the Grim Reaper waltzing with a woman. Rhyme must rely on his wits and intuition to track the elusive murderer through New York City -- knowing they have only forty-eight hours before the Coffin Dancer strikes again.