Tate Collier, the flawed hero of best-selling author Jeffery Deaver's exciting new thriller, is a divorced prosecutor whose tangled feelings about his ex-wife and their teenage daughter come to the forefront when the girl is kidnapped by a murderous psychiatrist bent on settling a personal score with Collier. It soon becomes clear that Tate really doesn't have a clue about Megan's life or her emotional reality, but the reader gets a fuller explanation from the girl's own perspective, and it's Megan, rather than her father, who turns out to be the real hero of this story.

Deaver draws the reader into the angry, rebellious Megan's desperate fight to save her own life in the creepy surroundings of a decrepit insane asylum in the Virginia mountains. (Deaver practically writes blueprints for the inevitable Hollywood set designer who will have a field day bringing the shuttered, rat-infested scene of Megan's captivity to the screen.) The motivation for Dr. Aaron Matthews's vendetta against the Colliers isn't revealed until most of the way through this crisply paced novel, but he's convincingly insane enough for it not to matter. Deaver throws a few implausible scenarios the reader's way, but they won't matter either; the chase is the thing. The narrative steams along without letting up, and the result is a nail biter that will keep the pages turning. --Jane Adams


From Publishers Weekly
Before he launched his praised and popular series about quadriplegic criminologist Lincoln Rhyme (The Empty Chair, etc.), Deaver made his reputation with tricky, stylish thrillers such as Praying for Sleep and Manhattan Is My Beat. This slick novel is a throwback to those books and Deaver's first wholly outside the Rhyme universe since A Maiden's Grave. The basic plot is simple. An insane but intensely charismatic psychiatrist, Aaron Matthews, for reasons revealed only near book's end, kidnaps his patient, alienated Megan McCall, the young adult daughter of former Virginia prosecutor Tate Collier, and imprisons her in an abandoned mental institution. Tate and his estranged wife go looking for Megan and enlist the cops in their search. Much violence ensues. Deaver's characters are workable but not deep, though there's some psychological probing along the fault lines dividing Tate, his wife and their daughter. The novel's primary appeal arises from its thrills, which are plentiful. Like James Patterson, Deaver writes dialogue-driven prose, in short, strong sentences and paragraphs that demand little from the reader while seizing attention to the max. Tate and his wife are forgettable heroes, but Deaver tells some of the story from feisty Megan's gripping POV, as she fights back against her captorAone dandy villain who delights in conning others through disguise and misdirection, allowing for plenty of plot curves. This isn't Deaver's most accomplished novel but it's high-energy entertainment. (Dec. 11) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Deaver's fast-paced suspense novel provides a thrill-a-minute audio experience. The action begins as semiretired attorney and gentleman farmer Tate Collier is wrenched from his orderly existence when his teenage daughter, Megan, disappears. Although both Tate and his ex-wife Bett find handwritten notes from Megan that imply she has run away, the two soon sense that something far more sinister is afoot. They begin to search in earnest for their daughter and eventually deduce that she is in the hands of Aaron Matthews, a brilliant but twisted Harvard-educated psychologist who has manufactured this elaborate kidnapping scheme as a means to gain revenge against Tate. Dennis Boutsikaris's deliberate, well-paced performance gives credibility to the often larger-than-life events and characters in this thriller. Deaver's many fans will not be disappointed; enthusiastically recommended for all popular fiction collections. Beth Farrell, Portage Cty. Dist. Lib., OH Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
Dennis Boutsikaris presents a chilling performance of this well-written thriller about a jaded lawyer locked in a murderous battle of wits with a psychotic psychiatrist. Boutsikaris shades each character's voice just enough to create variety without drawing attention to his technique. Although the narrative is substantially abridged, this package provides a satisfying listening experience. The one element of the story that seems to have suffered most in the abridgment is motivation. Several threads that could explain, or at least illuminate, the psychiatrist's behavior appear briefly but vanish almost immediately. Listeners must either choose to ignore those tantalizing clues or try to fill in the details from their own imaginations. G.M.N. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
The prolific Deaver is back in this story about how secrets can break a family apart. When Megan McCall, teenage daughter of divorced couple Tate (workaholic husband) and Bett (promiscuous wife) disappears, everyone assumes she ran away. After all, she had been seeing a psychiatrist ever since her alleged suicide attempt, and it was clear she was unhappy at home. We learn early on, however, that a madman impersonating a psychiatrist has abducted her, but we do not know why. The terror of a child gone missing causes Tate and Bett to work together, and in the course of their search, they find themselves communicating better than they ever had. Meanwhile, Megan's captor is filling her head with stories about her horrible parents, and Megan's own memories serve only to back up the horrible claims. As the plot unfolds, each family member confronts his or her own demons, conceding their existence and finally dealing with them. A brisk tale of family angst, this should satisfy Deaver's legions of fans and is likely to turn up on the big screen in a year or two. Mary Frances Wilkens
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Review
People Jeffery Deaver is a master of ticking-bomb suspense.

Chicago Tribune This one packs a wallop.

Los Angeles Times A shocker.


Review
The Buffalo News Deaver hits a home run....A rollicking good read.


Review
The Buffalo News Deaver hits a home run....A rollicking good read.


Book Description
Aaron Matthews is a man with a gift: he can talk anyone into doing almost anything. As a psychologist he used that talent to help people. Now he's using it against one man for revenge. With former trial lawyer Tate Collier as his target, the brilliant, ruthless Matthews knows the easiest way to destroy his adversary is to strike at the point of least resistance, which for Collier is his teenage daughter.


Download Description
The bestselling author of "The Devil's Teardrop" and "The Empty Chair" is back with a horrifying thrill ride. Attorney Tate Collier's past has come back to haunt him in the form of Aaron Matthews, a brilliant, Harvard-educated psychiatrist bent on vengeance of biblical proportions. When Collier's daughter disappears, he wants to believe it's teenage rebellion, but insidious signs soon involve the lawyer in a race against the clock to save her life.

FROM OUR EDITORS

Our Review
Speak of the Devil
These days, Jeffery Deaver is best known for the popular series of suspense novels (The Bone Collector, The Coffin Dancer, The Empty Chair) featuring quadriplegic forensic genius Lincoln Rhyme. But Deaver has also written a number of excellent stand-alone novels during the course of his career, including Praying for Sleep and -- my own personal favorite -- A Maiden's Grave. His latest, Speaking in Tongues, is another effective independent novel that offers an unpredictable, furiously paced story of murder, madness, and the limitless power of language.

Two figures, each blessed with uncommon powers of persuasion, dominate the narrative. The first is Tate Collier, a lawyer and gentleman farmer whose oratorical abilities once made him the most successful prosecuting attorney in Fairfax County, Virginia. The second is Aaron Matthews, a powerfully seductive former therapist whose tragic past -- and long-standing history of mental instability -- lead him to devise a complex scenario whose ultimate goal is the destruction of Tate Collier.

By the time the novel opens, Tate's once charmed life has drifted sharply off center. He is divorced, no longer practices criminal law, and has grown increasingly estranged from his troubled teenage daughter, Megan McCall, who has developed more than her share of emotional and psychological problems. The story begins when Aaron, posing as a "substitute" therapist, kidnaps Megan and hides her away in the crumbling, gothic ruins of a deserted mental institution in the Blue Ridge mountains. In the aftermath of that kidnapping, Tate, together with his former wife, embarks on a desperate quest to locate his daughter and to understand the origins of an apparently pointless crime.

Speaking in Tongues contains an oddly engaging combination of elements. On the surface, it is an unabashed thriller filled with unexpected plot reversals and narrative sleight-of-hand. Beneath that surface, it is an extended meditation on the art of manipulation and on language as the most potent -- and versatile -- of weapons.

In essence, Speaking in Tongues recounts a series of elaborate seductions, beginning with Megan's kidnapping and ending with a fatal confrontation between two master manipulators with radically different agendas. It isn't, by any means, a perfect novel -- the prose occasionally seems hasty, and a number of incidents stretch credibility past the breaking point -- but it's original, provocative, and a great deal of fun. At the very least, it should keep Deaver's many readers happy until the next Lincoln Rhyme adventure comes along.

--Bill Sheehan

Bill Sheehan reviews horror, suspense, and science fiction for Cemetery Dance, The New York Review of Science Fiction, and other publications. His book-length critical study of the fiction of Peter Straub, At the Foot of the Story Tree, has been published by Subterranean Press (www.subterraneanpress.com).

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Tate Collier is the silver-tongued prosecutor whose successful career has finally caught up with him. When their daughter disappears, Collier and his ex-wife desperately want to believe it's teenage rebellion. But insidious signs point to foul play. Indeed, the past has come back to haunt Collier—in the form of Aaron Matthews, a brilliant, Harvard-educated psychiatrist bent on vengeance of Biblical proportions. Matthews, a gifted orator himself, soon drops words for weaponry, and in his murderous rage will go to any length to ruin Collier's life.

Featuring an urgent race against the clock and the trademark Deaver plot twists, Speaking in Tongues delivers the suspense punch that has made this author a favorite and legitimate bestseller.

SYNOPSIS

Once one of the country's finest trial lawyers, Tate Collier is now a gentleman farmer in rural Virginia -- but danger has an unerring hold on him. Aaron Matthews, a brilliant psychologist, has targeted Tate, his ex-wife Bett, and their daughter Megan, for unspeakable revenge.

FROM THE CRITICS

Book Magazine

"Aren't words the most astonishing thing?" asks Dr. Aaron Matthews as he stands over a shallow grave and prepares to kill a man. Words are the weapons of choice in this gripping battle between Matthews, a homicidal psychiatrist bent on revenge, and Tate Collier, the prosecutor whose gift of oration has propelled him to the top of his profession. Throughout his latest thriller, Deaver keeps the action fast and the violence brutal. As revenge against Collier, his long-time adversary, Matthews arranges the kidnapping of Collier's teen-age daughter. And so the chase is on: Collier teams with his ex-wife to search for their daughter; Matthews stays one step ahead by manipulating key witnesses and using their weaknesses against them. As Matthews pushes words to their limit, Collier learns an important lesson: When words and logic fail us, we are left with an even more powerful motivator, emotion. Throughout, Matthews' cruelty is convincing, yet his skills at manipulation stretch credulity—as does Collier's uncanny knack for intuiting his rival's intentions. Deaver's latest requires a substantial suspension of disbelief, but nevertheless provides a suspenseful good time. —Jennifer Braunschweiger

Publishers Weekly

Before he launched his praised and popular series about quadriplegic criminologist Lincoln Rhyme (The Empty Chair, etc.), Deaver made his reputation with tricky, stylish thrillers such as Praying for Sleep and Manhattan Is My Beat. This slick novel is a throwback to those books and Deaver's first wholly outside the Rhyme universe since A Maiden's Grave. The basic plot is simple. An insane but intensely charismatic psychiatrist, Aaron Matthews, for reasons revealed only near book's end, kidnaps his patient, alienated Megan McCall, the young adult daughter of former Virginia prosecutor Tate Collier, and imprisons her in an abandoned mental institution. Tate and his estranged wife go looking for Megan and enlist the cops in their search. Much violence ensues. Deaver's characters are workable but not deep, though there's some psychological probing along the fault lines dividing Tate, his wife and their daughter. The novel's primary appeal arises from its thrills, which are plentiful. Like James Patterson, Deaver writes dialogue-driven prose, in short, strong sentences and paragraphs that demand little from the reader while seizing attention to the max. Tate and his wife are forgettable heroes, but Deaver tells some of the story from feisty Megan's gripping POV, as she fights back against her captor--one dandy villain who delights in conning others through disguise and misdirection, allowing for plenty of plot curves. This isn't Deaver's most accomplished novel but it's high-energy entertainment. (Dec. 11) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Deaver's fast-paced suspense novel provides a thrill-a-minute audio experience. The action begins as semiretired attorney and gentleman farmer Tate Collier is wrenched from his orderly existence when his teenage daughter, Megan, disappears. Although both Tate and his ex-wife Bett find handwritten notes from Megan that imply she has run away, the two soon sense that something far more sinister is afoot. They begin to search in earnest for their daughter and eventually deduce that she is in the hands of Aaron Matthews, a brilliant but twisted Harvard-educated psychologist who has manufactured this elaborate kidnapping scheme as a means to gain revenge against Tate. Dennis Boutsikaris's deliberate, well-paced performance gives credibility to the often larger-than-life events and characters in this thriller. Deaver's many fans will not be disappointed; enthusiastically recommended for all popular fiction collections. Beth Farrell, Portage Cty. Dist. Lib., OH Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

AudioFile

Dennis Boutsikaris presents a chilling performance of this well-written thriller about a jaded lawyer locked in a murderous battle of wits with a psychotic psychiatrist. Boutsikaris shades each character's voice just enough to create variety without drawing attention to his technique. Although the narrative is substantially abridged, this package provides a satisfying listening experience. The one element of the story that seems to have suffered most in the abridgment is motivation. Several threads that could explain, or at least illuminate, the psychiatrist's behavior appear briefly but vanish almost immediately. Listeners must either choose to ignore those tantalizing clues or try to fill in the details from their own imaginations. G.M.N. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

Deaver takes a break from his Lincoln Rhyme blockbusters (The Empty Chair, p. 254) for a kidnapping story that packs just as much suspense but a lot fewer moving parts. For a young woman of 17, Megan McCall's had a surprisingly troubled life: her parents' divorce when she was two, her father's remoteness, her mother's string of lovers, her own sexual acting-out, and now a dangerous stunt that's won her a round of court-ordered therapy. But all these traumas are chump change compared to the trouble she falls headlong into when"Dr. Bill Peters," the handsome, empathetic charmer substituting for her usual therapist, turns out to be Dr. Aaron Matthews, a sociopathic psychiatrist who tricks Megan into writing defiant notes to her estranged parents, drugs her, dumps her into the trunk of her car, and drives off on the first leg of an elaborate abduction plan. As usual in Deaver's thrillers, the good guys have plenty of resources—the bulldog tenacity of Megan's forbidden boyfriend Joshua LeFevre, the immediate suspicion of her hotshot lawyer father Tate Collier that something's not quite right about her running away, Tate's friendship with a hardworking Fairfax County detective, the witnesses who know Matthews was stalking Megan—but Matthews has a fiendish bag of tricks to neutralize them all. Keeping two steps ahead of his pursuers, he locks Megan in a cell in an abandoned mental hospital, where she tries to elude her abductor's retarded son Peter as she's wondering why somebody would have done this to her. Meantime, back in the real world, Peter's father toys with his pitifully overmatched adversaries on his trail, leaving themnotonly routed but ruined or dead, till thefinal showdown reveals the inevitable one secret too many. Scorchingly one-dimensional: a ruthlessly efficient formula thriller with nary an ounce of thought on its bones.