"The Empty Chair”   by Jeffery Deaver

Review #70

Lincoln Rhyme, a former New York City cop and a quadriplegic since a beam crushed his spinal cord years ago, is desperate to improve his condition and goes to the University of North Carolina Medical Center for high-risk experimental surgery.

Lincoln no sooner arrives when the authorities ask him to use his expertise to help find two missing women. In a twenty-four hour period, the sleepy little town of Tanner's Corner has a local teen murdered and two young women abducted. While the police know the culprit, they have no idea where he has taken them.

The kidnapper is 16-year-old Garrett Hanlon, a local youth of ill repute whose obsession with bugs has earned him the nickname "The Insect Boy." His captives are Mary Beth McConnell, who Hanlon has stalked for months, and local nurse Lydia Johansson, who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

A marathon chase ensues across North Carolina's perilous swampland by sheriff deputies and Rhyme's assistant and lover, Amelia Sachs. Rhyme directs the search from his wheelchair at sheriff headquarters. As he examines forensic evidence from the crime scenes and points along the search route, Rhyme grows increasingly suspicious about which players are the good guys and which are masking their evil intentions.

I have loved all the Lincoln Rhyme books and this one is no exception!