The Empty Chair

This spine-tingling new thriller, written by the blockbuster author of The Bone Collector and The Devil's Teardrop, has famous criminalist Lincoln Rhyme taking on his formidable opponent, his own bright protégée Amelia Sachs.

Rhyme, who has been a quadriplegic for years due to a beam crushing his spinal cord, seeks high-risk experimental surgery at the University of North Carolina Medical Center in an attempt to better his condition. However, he's hardly gotten comfortable with Sachs when the local police show up. Tanner's Corner, a peaceful Southern hamlet, has seen the death of a local youngster and the kidnapping of two young ladies in the space of twenty-four hours. The greatest hope of finding the girls alive is with Rhyme and Sachs.

The main suspect is a peculiar adolescent truant who goes by the moniker "Insect Boy," which he got because of his unsettling insect fetish. While he waits for his surgery, Rhyme consents to locate the youngster. Rhyme's superior analytical abilities and outstanding forensic background, together with Sachs's outstanding investigative work, quickly catch the culprit. Even Rhyme, however, is unable to predict that Sachs would not agree with his interpretation of the crime, and that her fervor will force her into the swamp, where she will foster the same suspect that Rhyme views as a cold-blooded murderer. And thus begins Rhyme's biggest challenge: a war of cunning, forensics, and intuition against the criminalist to whom he has taught all he knows. Rhyme also confronts his soul love and greatest buddy in this foe.