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Tate Collier is a divorced trial lawyer who became a gentleman farmer and lives in rural Virginia. His lifelong hero had been his Grandfather, a judge. He had great ambition to become the best and make his Grandfather proud of him. But, as a brilliant trial lawyer, he had learned how to use words lie weapons and had sent a mentally handicapped young man to prison for life and the young man was gruesomely killed in prison. He had also lost his wife and daughter in a divorce so he gave it all up and turned inward. His ex-wife and daughter suffered from his neglect while they were married and even now, as his daughter has grown into a 17 year old teenager named Megan.

Aaron Matthews, a brilliant (can I use that word twice in one book review?) psychologist, has turned his talents from healing to revenge. He is just as able to use his training and words to manipulate people into believing black is white as Tate Collier is. And he uses his talent to kidnap Megan Collier. Why? And can Tate and his ex-wife overcome the past to work together to rescue her? Will Megan be psychologicall damaged by this psychopath? Will she live to tell her parents what she really thinks of them? Can Tate Collier face what he's done?

This book is not as good as the Lincoln Rhyme novels but better than the Garden of Beasts novel. I did finish it and was pleased with the ending. ( )

After some research I think that, perhaps, Speaking in Tongues was not the best book to commence my Jeffery Deaver reading experience with! Although particularly easy to read – there is a style to his words which allows the story to flow effortlessly across the page – on the whole I felt there was something basic lacking in the premise; plausibility possibly, it was just too glib for my liking.

It is the story of a fractured, dysfunctional family who, through this anomaly, is now vulnerable to a psychotic revenge. When Megan, the angst-driven teenage daughter of divorced couple Tate (once a high-powered attorney) and Bett (now a successful business-woman), fails to appear at a rare family gathering, both parents uncharacteristically unite to find her; believing she has been kidnapped rather than simply running away. As they begin their search they need to become, once more, a working family unit. Thwarted most cleverly at every turn by a mentally-unstable and delusional adversary this, then, requires a leap-of-faith and a depth of feeling in each other, sadly-lacking previously, to drive them on – whilst unearthing, on the way, many deeply buried secrets and past hurts, for everyone involved.

Filled, overwhelmingly, with characters displaying all of society’s major social demons, it is also the tale of two men with silver-tongues, and the use of this rhetoric to manipulate the vulnerable, the weak and the damaged. But it is this manipulation, to my mind, while so central to the plot, which detracts from the heart of the story – fictional context aside, it is highly questionable, and just too improbable that all these characters would fall so effortlessly to this honey-tongued madman’s dialogue; and so quickly and absolutely. Furthermore, I just didn’t care all that much about the characters; to really worry about the consequences of events, to fret about their circumstances and to fear for their ultimate outcome.

Fundamentally, this wasn’t, what I would describe as, an-edge-of-the-seat read. I was involved enough to desire to uncover the reason, the basis, for the attack on Tate’s family; I was invested enough that small results surprised me but, overall, I felt there was opportunity wasted: to build much greater suspense within the fabric, to add more dimension to the characters and to supply much more depth to the tale. Ultimately, I think I would read other, more lauded books by Jeffery Deaver instead; and while not suggesting this book has no redeeming features, I would not have been at all vexed to have omitted it from my reading list.

(Dec 21, 2008) ( )

Before reading this, I listened to an abridged audiobook version of it a few months ago, and it was a good story for my commute. The reader was good at heightening suspense, although not very good at implying female voices, especially teens (and there was too much “like…” in the teen talk). There wasn’t a lot left out in the abridgement; one scene in particular that really did not contribute to the storyline. I’m not a big fan of mysteries and psychological thrillers, although this one was okay, despite being a bit far-fetched and predictable. The title implies religious connotations that the story does not have. ( )