Review - The Bone Collector by Jeffrey Deaver.

Book Summary

Lincoln Rhyme, ex-head of NYPD forensics, was the nation's foremost criminalist, the man who could work a crime scene and come away with a perfect profile of the killer, frozen in time. Now, Lincoln is frozen in place — permanently. An accident on the job left him a quadriplegic who can move just one finger, a great mind strapped to his bed, mulish and sarcastic, hiding from a life he no longer wants to live.

Until he sees the crime-scene report about a corpse found buried on a deserted West Side railroad track, its bloody hand rising from the dirt. It belonged to a man who got into a cab at the airport and never got out. Reluctantly, Lincoln Rhyme abandons retirement to track down a killer whose ingenious clues hold the secret to saving his victims — if Rhyme can decipher them in time. The search leads him to the Bone Collector, whose obsession with old New York colors every scrap of evidence he leaves for Rhyme and his new partner, Amelia Sachs, whom he drafts as his arms and legs. But she's never worked a crime scene in her life — and he can only whisper in her ear as she does the exacting work he loved more than anything else.


Published 1998

My Review - 4

I started and host the annual Thrill Week , and in 2011this was one of the must read recommendations, it is also on my Top 100 Killer Thriller list i'm going to get through one day.

This is an action packed thriller with many edge of your seat moments, that takes place in Manhattan.  I did like the idea of using an ex detective and criminologist because of his skills, experience and overall talent.  When Rhyme meets Amelia Sachs, you feel the immediate energy and it was a mysterious working relationship energy throughout the book.

Having a serial killer leaving clues behind for the detectives to figure out where the next victim was hidden were my favourite parts of the book.  He was also inspired from a book which in the end became a great clue.  This is truly a talent for detectives to have.  The forensic details reminded me of the great Patricia Cornwell books.

I thought this may be a book that passes the test of time but it was slow at times and missed something even though it did have technology in it. 

I also think the ending was brilliant, it really all came together with a wtf moment and gruesome violent killing, oh my.  Some parts were over the top but I still enjoyed it and these parts were some of my favourite even if they were unbelievable.

I watched the movie when it came out years ago but only remember I enjoyed it.  I am going to try and watch this weekend.  I love Angelina Jolie so was able to see her while reading but I don't remember Denzel, shocking.