Jeffery Deaver (born May 6, 1950) is an American mystery and crime writer. He has a bachelor of journalism degree from the University of Missouri and a J.D. degree from Fordham University. He began his career as a journalist and later practiced law before embarking on a career as a novelist. He has been awarded the Steel Dagger and Short Story Dagger from the British Crime Writers' Association and the Nero Award from The Wolfe Pack. He is also a three-time recipient of the Ellery Queen Reader's Award for Best Short Story of the Year and a winner of the British Thumping Good Read Award. His novels have appeared on bestseller lists around the world, including The New York Times, The Times, Italy's Corriere della Sera, The Sydney Morning Herald, and the Los Angeles Times.
Deaver was born near Chicago in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. His mother was an artist, and his father an advertising writer. His sister Julie Deaver is an author of young adult novels. He was inspired to write by From Russia With Love, a James Bond novel by Ian Fleming.
Deaver's most popular series features Lincoln Rhyme, a quadriplegic detective, and NYPD Detective Amelia Sachs.
Deaver's 2001 book,The Blue Nowhere, features criminal hackers (one using social engineering to commit murder), and a law enforcement computer crime unit. In it, Deaver pays homage to Lee de Forest, the inventor of the Audion (also known as the triode tube), who is considered to have opened the world to electronic development.
Deaver edited The Best American Mystery Stories 2009.
Three of Deaver's novels have been made into films:
A Maiden's Grave adapted as Dead Silence (1997)
The Bone Collector was adapted as a television series, Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector. Tracker, a television series based on his novel The Never Game, premiered in 2024.
Deaver also created the characters and—in a collaboration with 14 other noted writers—wrote the 17-part serial thriller The Chopin Manuscript narrated by Alfred Molina. It was broadcast on Audible.com from September 25 to November 13, 2007. It is also available in print.
Deaver was chosen to write a new James Bond novel: Carte Blanche is set in 2011 and was published on May 25, 2011. He is the second American author to write Bond novels, after Raymond Benson.
Mistress of Justice (1992) (ISBN 978-0-553-58445-5)
The Lesson of Her Death (1993)
Praying for Sleep (1994) (ISBN 978-0-451-20305-2)
A Maiden's Grave (1995) (ISBN 978-0-451-20429-5)
Speaking in Tongues (2000) (ISBN 978-0-684-87126-4)
The Blue Nowhere (2001) (ISBN 978-0-340-76751-1)
Garden of Beasts (2004) (ISBN 978-0-7435-6957-6)
The Chopin Manuscript (2008) (collaborative fiction)