This 13 hour book would have been really tight at about half that length. I thought the "patter" excessive. On the plus side, the Conjurer showed us many magic tricks; on the minus side, the Conjurer showed us too many magic tricks -- I lost count. The characters are all quite good and Sachs develops nicely in this one. ( )

Mr.Deaver kept me guessing until the very end. And I kept guessing wrong! I am reading the Lincoln Rhymes series in order and they just keep getting better and better. This book is a must read. ( )

I borrowed this from my nephew in NZ and have not read any others in the series. A contrast to my usual cold climate crime. Very New York being dramatic and filmic complete with car chase scene. Deaver puts his knowledge of magic and crime scene investigation on display. ( )

“... the killer escaped from a room from which there was no escape.”

In this one, Rhyme and company are pursuing the Conjurer, a killer who uses ‘magic’ as a part of his murders. He also is a master of the ‘quick change’ and disguises! AND, he’s killing his victims using old, classic magic acts like the Water Torture Cell routine! Also, his plan, “... was a masterpiece, involving dozens of tricks of the illusionist’s trade. Feint and double feint, careful timing, clever diversions.” He’s “a man whose soul was devoted to deception.”

But, he’s up against the Immobilized Man, and that’s bad news for him! It's a good read, full of twists and turns and misdirections - on both sides! It might be a touch too long, but I still enjoyed it! ( )

This is the first Lincoln Rhyme novel that I have read. I picked it after reading favourable reviews here on Amazon, and because I thought that the illusionist theme sounded interesting.

There were several things that I liked about the book. I did like how magic tricks were integrated with the story, and how you got to know how many tricks are carried out. I also liked the investigating duo Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs. And the book has its fair share of exciting action scenes.

But in the end I thought that there were a bit too many twists to the plot. Basically the murderer is doing this, this, this and this in order to do that, instead of simply doing that in the first place. Don't get me wrong - I love plot twists, and I think they are essential to a good mystery. But in this case I thought the twists became too fantastic.

I also thought that the deductions made by Lincoln Rhyme were too much in some places. It is fine to draw conclusions from the evidence, but at times it felt like too much was found out from too few clues.

It's an OK thriller, with a nice magician theme, but in the end the plot was too far-fetched for my liking. I'll try some other authors before coming back to Jeffery Deaver. ( )