The Empty Chair is a crime novel by Jeffery Deaver, published 2000.

It is the 3rd novel in a series featuring Lincoln Rhyme; the first of which was made into a movie, The Bone Collector.

Lincoln Rhyme is in North Carolina with his aide Thom and his companion and partner Amelia Sachs in order to receive experimental spine surgery, which may improve or further worsen his C4 quadriplegic disability. 

Whilst there they are approached by a local police sheriff and asked to help in a local case of kidnap and possible rape. They believe the kidnapper to be a local orphaned boy ‘Garret’, the ‘insect boy’.

I have to admire Deaver for being able to write a successful crime scene investigator who is confined to a chair. How does he come up with these plots?

It is well written, interesting, and well researched. Many plot twists as I’ve come to expect from Deaver.