Article: BOOKS IN BRIEF

The Empty Chair, by Jeffery Deaver (Simon & Schuster, $25). Deaver's books climb the best-seller lists with regularity, in part because of the enthralling forensic solutions conjured by his quadriplegic hero, Lincoln Rhyme. Such fascinations allow readers to forgive Deaver's tendency to write over-complicated endings that stretch the boundaries of credibility. Happily, his newest novel avoids the one-surprise-too-many syndrome and offers up the very best of Deaver, thanks to a plot that emphasizes human motive over cloak- and-dagger twists.

Rhyme arrives in a fictional North Carolina county, eager to try an operation that might restore some function to his useless body. He is accompanied by ...

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