![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Of course, there’s a deeper method beneath this murderous madness of course, the mechanics of each homicidal outrage-the Russian flautist strangled by a Houdini-designed rope tie called the Lazy Hangman, the gay makeup artist sawed in half, the equestrian lawyer chained and dunked by her ankles into a Central Park pond-are fiendishly inventive and the detective work equally so and, of course, Deaver keeps the suspense taut by repeatedly bringing the cops face to face with the Conjuror at the crime scenes and repeatedly showing him slipping through their fingers. Rhyme’s adventures, in which the armchair detective has depended on NYPD Officer Amelia Sachs for his legwork (and lately for emotional succor as well), have always traded on dexterous sleight-of-hand, so it’s only natural to literalize the metaphor in the Conjuror, the malevolent illusionist who first seems bent on dispatching a random collection of New Yorkers through diverse means at precise intervals of four hours. In this fifth case pitting quadriplegic criminalist Lincoln Rhyme against a murderous magician, Deaver ( The Stone Monkey, 2002, etc.) tries his best to outdo himself-and brother, does it show. ![]()
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