The Twelfth Card: A Lincoln Rhyme Novel

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars | 4,283 ratings

Price: 1.99

Last update: 07-20-2024


About this item

NOW A MAJOR TELEVISION EVENT FROM NBC, STARRING RUSSELL HORNSBY, ARIELLE KEBBEL, AND MICHAEL IMPERIOLI.

“Deaver’s labyrinthine plots are astonishing”(The New York Times Book Review) in this bestselling thriller featuring a hitman who is out to kill a young girl in Harlem and in order to save her, Lincoln Rhyme has to solve a cold case that’s over 150 years old.

Unlocking a cold case with explosive implications for the future of civil rights, forensics expert Lincoln Rhyme and his protégé, Amelia Sachs, must outguess a killer who has targeted a high school girl from Harlem who is digging into the past of one of her ancestors, a former slave. What buried secrets from 140 years ago could have an assassin out for innocent blood? And what chilling message is hidden in his calling card, the hanged man of the tarot deck? Rhyme must anticipate the next strike or become history—in the New York Times bestseller that proves “there is no thriller writer today like Jeffery Deaver” (San Jose Mercury News).

Top reviews from the United States

Jeannie H
5.0 out of 5 stars Another great book!
Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2024
So convoluted that I had to keep reading to see what happened next! Very detailed oriented, as usual, with many surprises! Wonderful read!!
John Crawford
4.0 out of 5 stars Well written suspense novel
Reviewed in the United States on May 4, 2024
Well written and developed.
JohnandDebbie
5.0 out of 5 stars Jeffery Deaver Delivers Again
Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2024
I love the Lincoln Rhyme mysteries because they have fact blended with the fiction. This story is full of twists and turns. I thought I knew where the story was going and BAM on a totally different path. This what I like in a mystery-it doesn't have to be true to life. I read as an escape and the twelfth card was a great escape. Grab a snack and a cup of your favorite beverage and enjoy the next few hours in this book.
Solipso
5.0 out of 5 stars Forensic science suspense mystery
Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2011
"The Twelfth Card" begins in an Afro-American museum-library. A skinny lass scrolls through a microfiche, absorbed in research for a high school term paper. Hidden in the bookshelves, a stalker creeps forward with dark intentions....

The Lincoln Rhyme novels resemble a Sherlock Holmes story, or an episode of the TV series "CSI." The killer eventually succumbs to rigorous examination of clues left behind.

Jeffrey Deaver's main characters stand out for two reasons: One is that the hero is paralyzed in all four limbs, a quadriplegic. The other is his female sidekick. In her cherry-red Camaro, Amelia Sachs races at incredible velocities to save the day, sharpshooting with her finger-sensitive automatic pistol; or in her white hazard suit, she walks the crime-scene grid and collects evidence. Audio-visual gimmicks allow Lincoln Rhyme to accompany her at the grid. He collates the data in a wheelchair, connected to his computerized laboratory. And of course Rhyme makes brilliant deductions.

Though this was my sixth reading of a Lincoln Rhyme suspense-mystery, Deaver still managed to create moments of genuine suspense as well as mystery. I did not, however, read the six books in succession. I advise against that. Deaver uses a formatted recipe, and if you read the stories in succession you will be saying, "This is just the same old thing." Allow a few months, if not a full year, between readings; read other authors; and understand that the goodness of these stories lies not in the sameness of their overall pattern, but in the variety of their details. Deaver tries to set his events in colorful locales, and he always gives salient qualities and personalities to his characters. He also provides historical, political, and scientific background. Details, details, details.

If you are pleased by interesting characters, by fairly plausible action sequences, by prose that reads easily and progresses at a fairly fast pace, or by a story with multiple twists, this novel has something to offer. Just remember to intersperse your Lincoln Rhyme adventures with books by other authors.
k
5.0 out of 5 stars Condition of the book
Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2024
Excellent condition. Thank you.
Gregcoach
4.0 out of 5 stars but hunted by 2 professional killers who were offered a quarter million to do so was pretty weak and a little unbelievable
Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2016
I can't write a review without pointing out that the premise of why Geneva Suttle needed to not only be killed, but hunted by 2 professional killers who were offered a quarter million to do so was pretty weak and a little unbelievable. I would think that throwing away the article probably would have been sufficient to achieve the same goal or just count on a teenager losing interest or not being able to put 2 and 2 together. Plus, the person who master minded the whole thing really didn't seem to have much of a motive for needing her dead. He stood to lose a job, that's it. But having said that, I thought the book was really a good read. The characters are well developed, the writing provides a lot of surprises throughout the book. With the premise being as weak as it was, my review speaks volumes for how much I enjoyed reading it. I will be reading all the books in the series for sure.
prog4ever
3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing
Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2016
Somebody is trying to kill Geneva, a black schoolgirl. Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs are trying to protect her and find out why she is in danger.
As usual in these stories, nothing is what it seems and it's only in the last pages that the truth is discovered. Geneva researches, with the help of Amelia, events that happened to one of her ancestors 140 years ago. The plot is thin and I found myself not caring one iota what happened to this ancestor and nor, for that matter, to Geneva herself. And why would a civilian forensic crime expert be allowed by the NYPD to lead an operation to protect a possible assassination victim? Come on, Mr. Deaver, this is laughably unrealistic. I do love the Lincoln Rhyme series, but this has to be the weakest one so far; not even close to The Bone Collector, The Skin Collector or the Vanished Man. 2 and a half stars, really.
Leslie Bialler
5.0 out of 5 stars Another Great Rhyme Novel
Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2006
Mr. Deaver's "The Twelfth Card"--the title refers to the twelfth, the hanged man, card of a Tarot deck--is another of the author's Lincoln Rhyme novels and it's one of the best. Rhyme, the wheelchair bound criminalist, and his lover, Detective Amelia Sachs, must this time find out who wants to kill a (rather annoying) African American teen named Geneva Settle, who is trying to find out the fate of one of her ancestors, a freed slave who moved to New York, and was accused of a crime.

Regular readers of Mr. Deaver's novels know that in his books nothing and nobody is ever as it would seem--not even the meaning of the hanged man Tarot card--and newcomers quickly catch on. Scenes that begin innocently end in action while what appears sinister sometimes turns out not to be.

We learn quickly who the perp is--and he's one of the more interesting Deaver creations--and the suspense is all about when Rhyme's team will identify him, locate him, and apprehend him. Deaver knows New York City and police procedure well. And he knows how to surprise (there's even a final kicker tucked into the author's note at the end), although he always plays fair. The clues are all there for you, and the loose ends all get tied up.

Notes and Asides: The publisher has chosen an unusual format for this edition. It's slightly longer (maybe an inch or so) than the standard-issue small size paperback, but no wider. (It'll stick a little farther out of the top of your coat pocket but will still rest easily inside it. The good news is that this format allows a slightly larger font size. The paper is thicker too. Thanks!

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