Preview of The Empty Chair Summary:

The novel begins with the arrival of Sachs and Rhyme at the Neurological Research Institute at the Medical Center of the University of North Carolina. After several years in a wheelchair, only able to move his left ring finger, Rhyme is undergoing an experimental surgery that could restore some use to his broken body. Although the surgery is risky, Rhyme chooses to go ahead, thinking, "The overwhelming burden of his injury was the heaviest when it came to the small tasks that a healthy person does without thinking." He interrogates his own reasons for having it: So why was he doing it? Oh, there was a very good reason. Yet it was a reason that the cold criminalist in him had trouble accepting and one that he would never dare utter out loud. Because it had nothing to do with being able to prowl over a crime scene...