The Vanished Man

lights—a seven-foot Colortran unit—falling free of its mounting and swinging toward the stage by its thick electric cable.
    Stepping back instinctively, she tripped over a guitar stand she hadn’t remembered was behind her.
    Tumbling, arms flailing, gasping . . .
    The young woman hit the stage hard, on her tailbone. The massive light plummeted toward her, a deadly pendulum, growing bigger and bigger. She tried desperately to rise but fell back, blinded as the searing beams from the thousand-watt bulbs turned her way.
    Then everything went black.

JEFFERY DEAVER , a former attorney, is the New York Times bestselling author and originator of the acclaimed detective hero Lincoln Rhyme, featured in nine hit novels, including The Bone Collector —also a Universal Pictures feature film starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie—and The Cold Moon , which won a Grand Prix from the Japanese Adventure Fiction Association and was named Book of the Year by the Mystery Writers Association of Japan.
    A lifelong fan of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels, Deaver was honored to be handpicked by Fleming’s estate to carry on the literary tradition, beginning with his #1 international and New York Times bestseller Carte Blanche .
    His new novel, XO , features special agent Kathryn Dance, who first appeared alongside Lincoln Rhyme in The Sleeping Doll and whose popularity inspired Roadside Crosses, first in the series. A former folksinger, Deaver penned songs featured in XO , which are downloadable from his website.
    His many awards include the 2009 Best Novel of the Year award from the International Thriller Writers organization for his stand-alone novel The Bodies Left Behind . He’s been nominated for seven Edgar Awards, an Anthony Award, and a Gumshoe Award, and was short-listed for the ITV3 Crime Thriller Award for Best International Author. He is a three-time recipient of the Ellery Queen Readers Award for Best Short Story of the Year, and a winner of the British Thumping Good Read Award. He has also won a Steel Dagger for best thriller of the year ( Garden of Beasts ) and a Short Story Dagger from the British Crime Writers’ Association.
    Visit the author on Facebook or go to www.jefferydeaver.com .
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    AUTHOR PHOTO © CHARLES HARRIS/CORBIS

A LSO BY J EFFERY D EAVER
    Carte Blanche
    Edge
    The Burning Wire*
    Best American Mystery Stories 2009 (Editor)
    The Watch List (The Copper Bracelet and
    The Chopin Manuscript ) (Contributor)
    Roadside Crosses**
    The Bodies Left Behind
    The Broken Window*
    The Sleeping Doll**
    More Twisted: Collected Stories, Volume Two
    The Cold Moon*/**
    The Twelfth Card*
    Garden of Beasts
    Twisted: Collected Stories
    The Vanished Man*
    The Stone Monkey*
    The Blue Nowhere
    The Empty Chair*
    Speaking in Tongues
    The Devil’s Teardrop
    The Coffin Dancer*
    The Bone Collector*
    A Maiden’s Grave
    Praying for Sleep
    The Lesson of Her Death
    Mistress of Justice
    Hard News
    Death of a Blue Movie Star
    Manhattan Is My Beat
    Hell’s Kitchen
    Bloody River Blues
    Shallow Graves
    A Century of Great Suspense Stories (Editor)
    A Hot and Sultry Night for Crime (Editor)
    Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (Introduction)
    *Featuring Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs
    **Featuring Kathryn Dance

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    This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
    Copyright © 2003 by Jeffery Deaver
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