The Twelfth Card by Jeffery Deaver (2005, Unabridged, Compact Disc)

It seems like ages since loyal readers said goodbye to Rhyme and Sachs in "The Vanished Man," which I read several times to keep myself company until Deaver's newest in the series would arrive--and here it is!

While maybe not as intense as some of his others in the series, "The Twelfth Card" is nevertheless a fun, forensic ride as we join Rhyme et al for two days of solving a potentially unsolveable crime. In this case, it is truly puzzling: Somebody is trying to murder a teenaged student in Harlem, and it's no street murder. The most sophisticated hired guns are after thin, bookish Geneva Settle, but why? Rhyme gets involved after a failed attempt on Geneva's life results in the murder of the librarian in the library where Geneva was studying. And the terrifying attempt on her own life is plain to see. As is the professionalism of the crime scene.

In his now state-of-the-art home office, quadriplegic Rhyme barks out orders in characteristic unpleasant way (but we love him) as he sends his team, all of whom we know well, out in the field to follow each clue.

There is very little of the personal relationship between Rhyme and his protege Amelia Sachs in this outing, and I found that disappointing. Nevertheless, "The Twelfth Card" is, as all of Deaver's works, ingenious, engrossing and intensely satisfying.