5 comments about Speaking in Tongues.

1. One of my favorite crime thriller authors is Jeffery Deaver, and I just recently had the chance to finish his book Speaking In Tongues. Great stuff...
   
   Aaron Matthews, a former psychologist with a knack for talking people into things, is out to destroy the life of Tate Collier. Collier is a trial lawyer who prosecuted Matthew's son for a killing when he was a teen. A short time after the teen went into prison, he was brutally murdered. Matthews wants to take the life of Collier's teenage daughter in revenge. He does this by kidnapping the daughter after a counseling session and makes it look like a runaway. She's taken to an old abandoned mental hospital where Matthews plans on murdering her. Collier suspects that his daughter's disappearance is not what it seems, but everyone who can provide answers is either dying or being framed for other crimes. The story is a race to see if Collier can figure out who is doing all this, and to find his daughter before harm comes to her.
   
   This is an excellent story with numerous plot twists and tight story-telling. The interaction between Collier, his ex-wife, and the daughter (who has numerous issues) provides all the necessary color to allow the characters to struggle with both family feelings and the on-going crime investigation. Definitely not a book that is easy to put down.



2. Megan is a 17 year old rebel who finds herself discussing her less than adequate parents while at court ordered therapy. But this shrink is substituting for her regular doctor. What she soon realizes, is that he needs therapy of his own since he proceeds to drug and kidnap her. Enter her self centered parents. They soon realize that something is amiss and begin their new careers as self appointed detectives as they follow up on clues that seem to magically fall from the sky. But somehow the bad guy is always one step ahead of the good guys, thwarting them from their attempts to reclaim the daughter that they now realize they have overlooked and taken for granted.
   
   The sarcasm in my above description, I think, pretty much sums up my feelings on this book. Jeffery Deaver's Lincoln Rhyme books have always been page turners for me and I look forward to each one with great anticipation. But his non-Rhyme books are always a recipe for disaster. This plot is too contrived, the bad guy too capable of keeping the good guys off his trail, and the good parents completely unbelievable in the efforts they throw together to attempt to get their daughter back. Overall, the writing actually keeps the story going because it flows so well, but the story is sorely lacking.



3. I love the way Jefrey Deaver constructs his psychological suspense thrillers. He weaves such a complex web with twists and turns that keep me glued to the book, afraid to turn the page to see what happens next, but also afraid not to turn the page.
   
   This book features a vicious type of revenge toward attorney Tate Collier. His daughter, Megan, is kidnapped by a psychologist, Dr. Aron Matthews, who blames Tate for the death of his son years before. Tate and his ex-wife, Bett, are forced to team up and work together to try to rescue their daughter.
   
   However, it is not their story that is particularly interesting, but rather the story of teen-age Megan Collier. Megan has definite psychological problems, but manages to work through and sometimes with her issues to thwart her kidnapper. Dr. Matthews hides her in a decrepit, unused insane asylum, but she manages to escape from the room in which she is held and, although she is unable to get out of the asylum, she finds plenty of places to hide and try to outwit her captor. She is the true hero of the book, and the narrative works best when it is focused on her.
   
   Forget all the nonsense between Tate and Bett and their long scenes of exploring what went wrong in their relationship and how both of them have abrogated their duty as Megan's parents. That is unnecessary, boring filler that doesn't really add anything to the book. Skip those pages if you like and read the scenes with Megan. That's where the crux of the story is, and a very exciting story it is, too.



4. I finished this book quick it was so good, I couldn't sleep, just kept reading it. This is my 1st novel by this auther. Since I am a Christian my wife saw this while we were in Catalina Island, and she said look "Spoeaking in Tongues" thinking it was a Christian novel, pero it was a suspense novel and it got me curious. Good book and not too much profanity, though any is too much.



5. An early twist sets the tone for this tribute to the power of words, which in this case are used mostly to deceive. Deaver takes us on a twisting journey that may or may not spell doom for the protagonist. The story kept me engrossed the whole way. The brutality is raw in a couple of spots, but the reader is rewarded with a satistfying ending. After reading this story, you might think twice about excessive flattery.

5 comments about Coffin Dancer.

1. Alexander Adams did a marvelous job of reading this book on tape. It was a really great mystery novel with Lincoln and Sachs doing their best to catch the culprit(s). If you watched the movie, the BONE COLLECTOR with Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie, you know the characters and these Lincoln Rhyme novels are excellent. I picked up another book on tape by Deaver, PRAYING FOR SLEEP, read by Connor O'Brien and the reader is really not high quality. If you've listened to books on tape and heard readings by the likes of Frank Muller or George Guidall or the reader of the Stuart Woods novels, then you know what great readers are like. When you get a dud reader, it destroys the books. Although I've become a fan of Deaver's with this book and the Bone Collector movie, I'm afraid I'll have to bypass any "listening" of these books read by O'Brien.
   
   Having said that, this is a great story of a very perverse and brilliant villain and a woman who loses nearly everything dear in her life because she's on the assassin's list. You'll love it, Deaver's done a great job with this one!



2. I have read a number of Deavers books and he always keeps me in suspense until the end of the book. I would definitely recommend this book and put it up there with Michael Connely, James Patterson and other such authors. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.



3. 
   No spoilers
   
   The Coffin Dancer is a pretty good follow up to Bone Collector, but it's definitely not as good. Actually the path of the books is very different. In Bone Collector, it's all about the antagonist leaving all sorts of crazy evidence just waiting to see if the law can put it all together and get on his trail. However, in Coffin Dancer there is almost no evidence whatsoever and Rhyme is having a tought time catching a break on getting a lead on the antagonist.
   
   As I was reading, I kept thinking that Bone Collector was better and that while this book was good, it wasn't all that great, but at the end there are two huge twists that you will not at all see coming. I promise you. If you see these coming... well you won't and if you say you did then you're a liar. If you're thinking of continuing the Rhyme series, I definitely suggest you do so, because I am.



4. I love Jeff Deaver's books in general and this one was excellent! Lincoln is one of my favorite fictional characters. Deaver never disappoints when it comes to suspense, twists and character development.



5. I didn't really care for THE COFFIN DANCER very much. Jeffrey Deaver is obviously a very intelligent author, but I didn't feel that much of an emotional connection to this book's storyline and its large cast of mostly stereotypical characters. For the most part, this was a rather colorless read, with a lot of action scenes and research on forensics, but not very much heart.
   
   Further, most of the dialogue is quite stilted and the action scenes have a unbelievable, contrived quality. There's a bit of romance in this book, but the "love triangle" scenes struck me as forced and inauthentic. I would not recommend this novel to someone who cares deeply about good dialogue and characterization.
   
   There are two very clever plot twists at the end of THE COFFIN DANCER, but they weren't enough to save the book for me. Clearly, I'm in the minority when it comes to Jeffrey Deaver's novels, since he obviously has a very large fan base. If you're never read Deaver before, I suggest reading THE BONE COLLECTOR, which is the first novel featuring his recurring character of Lincoln Rhyme.

5 comments about The Blue Nowhere.

1. Generally I like Deaver's novels - and the premise of this one sounded interesting. But he's in over his head this time. Anyone who has spent more than a few hours online can see that the writer doesn't really understand what he's talking about. By the end of the book I was just reading it to finish it - and the end wasn't worth doing that.
   
   If you have to read a Deaver novel, do yourself a favor and go re-read "The Coffin Dancer" instead.



2. Most of Deaver's best work has involved quadriplegic criminalist Lincoln Rhyme (superbly brought to the screen by Denzel Washington in The Bone Collector) but there's more to this author than that acclaimed series. The thing about Deaver is that he always knows his subject material in great detail, and there's no doubt about his knowledge of the world of cyberspace, HTML and hacking as displayed here in The Blue Nowhere. As another reviewer here suggested, there's an underlying impression that computers today (in the worst hands) can do what a .45 could do in a Western of 100 years earlier.......KILL.
   
   Written around 2000/2001, I have a feeling that some of the pseudonyms used (like Phate, Trapdoor etc) will probably sound a bit dated five years on and indicative of a by-gone age (the technology bubble of the 1990's) but it was appropriate for that time I guess - things move so fast in the blue nowhere - anyway this book was the right story at the right time and still holds up five years on. The great news is that, good as it is, there are riches galore to be found in the still-growing Deaver library. Anyone who owns one of his books will be planning on buying another I'm sure; as for those who haven't taken the plunge, well you're very lucky as there are great things in store for you. Jeffrey Deaver is one of the very best psychological thriller writers of the present day.....end of story.



3. I love Deaver's Lincoln Rhyme series, and in my view, nothing matches that in regard to criminalist forensics. Deaver's turned to forensics of a different kind with The Blue Nowhere: computers and cyberspace. Wyatt Gillette, a genius hacker, is imprisoned for the thing he does best, but finds himself on temporary pardon and part of an investigation into a sadistic hacker/killer named Phate. Phate has targeted Silicon Valley and seems to commit murder at random, but Gillette finds his pattern and the race begins to stop him before he murders his next victim.
   
   This is a very intriguing book, filled with computer terminology easy enough for a computer dummy like me to understand. Gillette is an interesting character, a man who is no criminal yet is treated like one simply because he broke a federal code. The plot is fast-paced, and the premise one that holds interest.



4. The Blue Nowhere by Jeffery Deaver will give you a really frightening glimpse into the kind of deliberate destruction that can wrought by the innocent, the stupid and the evil people who manage to invade data bases. Machines can and are programmed to make mistakes. Hackers, crackers, cops, a serial killer and chunks of Hacker history are woven into a great mystery. The story keeps you on edge, who escapes and who dies is always a surprise. Though the book came out in 2001 most of the problems illustrated in the story still exist. The tale is a first rate mystery and you will come away from it fully entertained, but the lingering feeling of vulnerability may change how you scrutinize computer directed actions in the future.



5. Jeffery Deaver is a master of the plot twist, both in his excellent thrillers such as "The Bone Collector" and "The Devil's Teardrop" and in his imaginative short stories. Unfortunately, "The Blue Nowhere" proves that Deaver can write really, really bad novels on occasion.
   
   I'm a computer professional and must agree with the other programmers who have posted reviews: the technical details in this book are hideously misinformed. This is a fatal problem because Deaver spins so much of the plot -- and so much of the text -- around these hilarious bloopers. I can only guess that Deaver's technical consultant was a grandiose teenager with severely limited knowledge and experience.
   
   Deaver seems to think that 1990 teenage geek-speak is the way that computer professionals really talked in 2001, when he wrote the book. In addition, Deaver misuses some ordinary terms (e.g., "script" and "robust"), makes extensive use of other terms that NO ONE uses -- especially the constantly repeated "Blue Nowhere" for "cyberspace" -- and keeps inserting long-winded (and erroneous!) technical explanations into the text. The story is sub-par and largely guessable as a result. Only the identity of Shawn was a surprise -- and a pretty good one, though I didn't care anymore by that point.
   
   Whoops, I've gotta go pumice my thick callouses just like all programmers do. It comes from too much typing ... wait, I mean "keying." Dang, I just broke the keyboard again.

5 comments about Praying for Sleep.

1. I recently reread an out-of-print edition of Praying for Sleep that I first read in 1999. I had noticed it on my book shelf at a time when I had nothing new to read and realized I had completely forgotten the plot. So I reread it and enjoyed it immensely. There are lots of plot twists, as is usual with Deaver, and I found Deaver's look into the mind of a schizophrenic personality to be fascinating. Even the second time around, moreover, I was completely surprised by Deaver's ending. I suppose that doesn't say much for my long-term memory, but I think it says a lot for Deaver's book.



2. I read the other review about this book. I dont understand how reader enjoy the book. its boring, many twisted plots is unnessery, the end is little surpising but not convincing at all.
   I read the book 10 days and I just wait to see where the book will become interesting- its not happen. I never feel so boring in reading a book. This is my second book of deaver. I read the vanished man and I very enjoy but this book was inferior.
   Maybe one thing in the book was enjoyable and this is the descriptions of Deaver- like the description of the childhood of
   Hrubek and of Lis- this was touching and maybe this give me the fews moments of enjoy in the book.



3. Brace yourself. You are going to become hunter and prey to such an extent that you will feel compassion for both. Jeffery Deaver seeps up through the floorboards of imagination and creeps into our subconscious strata in this "Look over your shoulder and under the bed" thriller.



4. This is an old Deaver, copyright in 1994. Lincoln Rhyme was probably walking on both legs then, so he doesn't show up in this exciting novel.
   
   Nonetheless, you can tell this is Deaver's work, because the plot races forward and you can never guess what is going to happen next. With Deaver, you never know what's what until you finish. You're sure to enjoy this one.



5. I recently found this "older" Deaver novel I had somehow overlooked. It is every bit what I have come to expect and love from a Deaver novel. Simply put, the man is a master storyteller. Even by now, after reading most (13?) of his books, and knowing there are plot twists and turns . . . and knowing my head is going to get messed with . . . and knowing I would love to FOR ONCE actually get the twists right . . . I still can't. I still wind up surprised by the fifty different ways the story takes you before the end. Some people call that whiplash; I call it the cure for predictable by-the-numbers thrillers.
   
   The plot does not need repeating here, but this does: read this book. I recommend this, and the other Deaver novels, without hesitation.

No comments about Praying for Sleep.

5 comments about The Bone Collector (A Lincoln Rhyme Novel).

1. The character of the Bone Collector is extremely spooky. As already stated in numerous other reviews, this is an excellent story that keeps the reader turning pages as fast as possible. The characters, especially Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs, are developed enough that I have already begun to read another Deaver story starring Lincoln Rhyme: I want to know more about them. I won't give a synopsis as so many other reviewers have dutifully done. I just recommend this fast-paced, spine-chilling mystery/adventure novel to everyone!



2. Lincoln Rhyme has been retired, ever since a falling beam at a crime scene, left him a quadriplegic. Now, Lincoln is bed ridden, with his only human contact being a man named Thom. He dreams of killing him self, when some thing new, to occupy his time.
   
   A serial killer, called the Bone Colector, is terrorizing the city of New York. With every person he kills, he leaves behind evidence that will lead to the next victim. Unfortunetly, this is only half the work, and Rhyme needs some one to do the crime scene for him.
   
   Enter Amelia Sachs. Sachs is a model turned cop, who has several problems of her own. At first, she, like most people, is able to see past Rhyme's physical handicap, and be disgusted by his personality. But, Lincoln and Amelia will have to work together, to defeat a man who knows every one of Lincoln's tricks, and whose final victim, is Lincoln.
   
   Notable Charecters Introduced: Lincoln Rhyme, Amelia Sachs, Thom Lastname, Lon Sellitto, The Bone Collector.



3. The Rhyme Killers would be a great book to read after the Bone Collector.
   It too has the great suspense you love to find in a mystery.



4. Warning: Once you read this novel, you will be hooked. I devoured every other Lincoln Rhyme novel after reading the Bone Collector. The only problem I have discovered is that Mr. Deaver cannot write fast enough.
   
   To anyone who enjoys a deliciously complicated character base along with amazing plot twists, you have found yourself a winner. I find myself wishing I could meet the people in this novel. You will too. I dare you to pick up a copy today, I promise you will be glad you did.



5. This book is exceptional. It is well written with characters that are true to life. The plot is absolutely engaging. I really like that there was a glossary of terms for those of us who are forensically challenged. I found it difficult to do anything until I knew 'who did it'.
   
   Good job Mr. Deaver. You have a fan for life.

No comments about Garden of Beasts.

5 comments about A Maiden's Grave.

1. This has to be one of the best thrillers i have read; I finished reading it within 24 hours and then couldn't stop thinking about the characters. Even though I didn't find the 'love story' between Arthur Potter and Melanie to be at all credible this didn't spoil the story for me. Highly recommended if you're looking for a good page-turner that makes you think.



2. Jeffrey Deaver never ceases to satisfy. As usual I couldn't put it down.



3. This Book is one of my favorite books I have ever read. I raed this book in two days and I am not a person who reads a lot but this book is so good in my opinion, I gave it to some of my friends and they all read it just as fast as I did if not faster. This book is filled with suspence, action, turns and twist and the plot is really well written. I also really enjoyed the story line it was very intriguing.



4. A hostage situation, set in an old slaughterhouse that is dark and sinister and smells of death. Bad enough already! But to have the hostages deaf children and their teachers was genius as the whole communication aspect is turned on it's head.
   
   I found the characters compelling, even the bad guys!
   Having finished it, I feel I have far more understanding of the complexities of a hostage situation and far more insight into the experiences of the deaf.
   
   A thriller that stands out!



5. My mom loaned me this book (she reads all of his books) and I loved it! It was so intriguing and suspenseful. I loved the characters and even the characters flaws that caused them to want to be `top dog' in the rescue/investigation. Immediately after I read it I was ready to read it again, but my mom wanted it back. LOL