The book was very entertaining, though not at first I considered not finishing the book. Even if it didn’t sound appealing much at first, don’t give up. Please pay attention that there’s an appendix at the end and make sure to check it out while reading. Lots of abbreviations in the book, it affected my reading experience since many times I had no clue what they’re talking about. I couldn’t guess the killer. Overall an enjoyable quick read, the book is over 500 pages but I flew through it!

Forensics was definitely the main plus-point of this book. Its graphic scenes of torture were definitely its biggest drawback. It was far too much, everyone in the book club felt the same way. The rat scene in particular was atrocious. I still baulk and shiver thinking about it now. Ugh.

It's a shame as the author clearly did a lot of research into forensics and some of that was interesting (although it still wasn't water-tight, there were some little mistakes). But there were other problems too, such as with characterisation; I know this is never usually a priority in these types of book but I feel like the author was trying to humanise his characters but failed, and I also thought a lot of the drama related to Lincoln and whether he would or wouldn't attempt assisted suicide was pointless when the book cover screams out to us that this is the first book in a whole series of Lincoln Rhyme.

I did really like the twist at the very end, but it was too little too late I'm afraid. The graphic descriptions of torture were just too much and, though I like a good mystery this has reinforced to me that I shall have to tread warily in this genre from now on. I have definitely been put off reading this particular author again.

Per la precisione: 4,75 ★

Questa recensione è presente anche sul blog: http://thebooksblender.altervista.org...

Arrivo un po' tardi a leggere questo libro (considerato che sono un'avida lettrice di thriller) e ammetto d'aver ritardo a scrivere questa recensione, perché...

Deaver scopre subito le sue carte: un folle assassino particolarmente affascinato dalle ossa, un (ex)poliziotto tetraplegico intenzionato a farla finita con la sua vita e una poliziotta nel posto sbagliato (poveraccia, si ritrova davanti una mano scarnificata, il cui proprietario è stato interrato… non una bella scena) con l'artrite cronica. Insomma, un bel tris; è solo questione di mescolarle bene e giocare un'ottima partita.

E, a mio parere, la partita è ben giocata. Per questo, ho ritardo a scrivere: ho ben poco da dire.

La storia prende subito (giusto come aspetto folcloristico, ho cominciato a leggere nel pomeriggio per finire il giorno dopo… diciamo che sono rimasta incollata alla lettura XD). Insomma, entrando subito nella dinamica della follia dell'omicida, abbiamo anche modo di seguire la polizia nella scoperta dell'indizio successivo, della vittima successiva. Praticamente all'inizio di ogni capitolo, c'è una tabella che segue gli aggiornamenti dell'identità dell'assassino. In più, ogni volta che viene trovata una nuova scena del crimine, seguiamo passo passo Amelia nell'investigazione e nella ricerca delle prove. Gli indizi trovati vengono presentati al lettore così come se li trova davanti anche la polizia. Diventa, quindi, automatico immedesimarsi nella lettura; cercare di comprendere quegli indizi apparentemente scollegati e assurdi e trovare una soluzione insieme (o, perché no?, anche prima) di Rhyme e del suo poll.

Ultima nota relativa alla storia: non ho individuato all'assassino (il primo sospetto sì, ma Deaver mi ha proprio preso in castagna!). E mi piace un sacco restare sbalordita da un colpevole su cui non avevo proprio il più piccolo dei sospetti.

Unica nota "dolente" il finale: un po' troppo "americanata"per i miei gusti, ma comunque piacevole.

Insomma, se l'impianto narrativo è davvero ben costruito, lo stesso vale per i personaggi. Rhyme, il detective costretto su di un letto, burbero e irascibile. Amelia, la meravigliossima (ok, qui cascano un po' le braccia) poliziotta; tanto bella quanto sola, con un doloroso passato alle spalle.
E poi tutto il contorno non è affatto da meno. Si tratta di personaggi forti, ma con le loro debolezze, con i loro segreti, caratterizzati e, sì, molto realistici proprio perché imperfetti.
Qui accade proprio quello che io adoro: il carattere dei personaggi prende forma tramite le loro azioni, i loro discorsi, i loro movimenti e i loro gesti. Non si hanno blocchi di paragrafo in cui si descrivono minuziosamente tutte le sfaccettature e le elucubrazioni dei personaggio. Affatto! Loro agiscono, si muovono sulla scena e prendono così vita. È un aspetto questo che davvero adoro.

Ehehe: alla fine, ho scritto d'aver "poco da dire", ma qui sto creando un poema. Concludo rapidamente. Per quello che riguarda gli ambienti, vedi sopra. Le scene del crimine sono ben descritte; le descrizioni precise, ma non invadenti, nel senso che permettono al lettore di immaginare la sua versione dell'ambiente.

Ben scritto e scorrevole.

It's a page-turner, and to Deaver's credit, the extensive scenes about collecting and analyzing crime scene trace evidence rarely get boring.

Unfortunately, it's also pretty far-fetched. I'm willing to accept the elaborate murder methods, the exacting evidence collection, and the rapid clue-solving because they're the point of the novel. I accept that Lincoln Rhyme is a superhuman genius up against a larger-than-life serial killer because that's what makes this worth reading. I can ALMOST accept that all this happened in a day or two for the same reason.

But the killer is presented both as a psycho with a bone fetish and also as a man driven insane by trauma and personal vendetta, and the two personas don't quite match up. Then there's the climax (including a revelation whose essence I saw coming but whose details I didn't, which was a nice bit of misdirection), in which Lincoln Rhyme does something I still can't imagine being possible for a human being let alone a quadriplegic.

It's a good airplane book.

Once upon a time, during my undergrad, I did a module on crime fiction. It was fascinating stuff, but I had major problems with the lecturer. One problem was that when I sent in an anonymous suggestion that she warn students of the level of sexual violence in one of the books, she responded that students shouldn't be such "fragile little flowers", and should have expected it on a course about crime. I constantly regret not standing up and pointing out to her that I am not weak for wanting a warning before I read stuff like that -- I am, after all, someone who has been sexually assaulted -- and that "crime" does not and should not automatically mean "rape and torture". In all the other books we read for the course, it just meant murder. Anyway, that took my breath away, but the following week was even worse.

She told us that she was thinking about adding new books to the course, and asked for suggestions. This, as near as I can get it with an imperfect memory, is what she said: "Should I add more feminist crime novels? More female detectives? Gay and lesbian detectives? A black detective? A dog detective? A disabled detective -- no, that would be really scraping the barrel."

I am extremely tempted to package this book up and mail it to her with the words "Scraping the barrel?", except that they won't stick in her mind as they did in mine and doubtless in the minds of other disability-knowledgeable people.

This is a pretty smart book. It deals with the issues of its disabled protagonist without making him a superman. It deals with the reactions to him honestly. It deals with the idea of euthanasia and the protagonist's desire to go through with that -- and other people's reactions to that. It doesn't, so far as I could see, fetishise disability (there were one or two points where I went, "uh, y'what?", but they were minor quibbles) or diminish it. We get the details of Lincoln Rhyme's bodily needs in the same way as we get crime scene info.

It is a bit graphic in some places, but there's a sort of clinical tone that carried me through it, unlike in Val McDermid's work. As far as I can remember, thinking back through it, there isn't much sexual content, at least.

The thriller aspect, for me, took a backseat to my curiosity about Rhyme, the way he thought and felt, the way he dealt with the situation. I didn't work things out ahead of Rhyme, and I'm not sure you're meant to, though this isn't to make you feel stupid -- Sachs and the other people assisting Rhyme are also intelligent and sharp, just not in the same way. I think if you know the ending or have a mind like Rhyme's you could keep following the evidence, but I stuck to the human interactions...

In any case, I enjoyed reading it, and while I'm sure that there are quibbles to be had with the portrayal of disability, I thought it was a solid effort. And I think I will send an email to the lecturer I had for that module with some more feedback...

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Lincoln Rhyme is a quadriplegic criminalist who really wants to die. Following a horrific accident while investigating a crime scene, he is left with the ability to turn his head and has a tiny bit of movement in his left ring finger. He got a big settlement and has a full time caregiver and a nice apartment overlooking Central Park but life sucks for him (which I had no problem imagining).

A crime occurs while Amelia Sachs is on duty and she does a good job securing the crime scene despite the criticism she gets from higher ups. The crime committed is so obscure that Ryhme’s former partner asks him to review what’s been gathered so far. And the story flies from there.

I enjoyed the combination of the criminal investigation with all the medical details of the protagonist’s situation. I disliked all the acronyms used - I just could not remember them all, and then, Voila! - At the end of a book is an appendix with all the names and explanations for all those capital letters and abbreviations. I wish that would have been at the front of the book. A physical book, I’d have caught it, but I seldom scroll through to the end of a book on Kindle.

I will definitely be reading the next one in this series.


ATY Goodreads Challenge - 2022
#31 - a book published at least 10 years ago

This one’s tricky to review. I did enjoy the book overall, mainly because of the unforgettable character at its center, Lincoln Rhyme. Even his name is tough to forget.

Apparently neither the film nor the TV series were particularly well received. Having seen neither, I can’t comment on them. I know that the scripts weren’t written by  Jeffrey Deaver but by others. The film in particular had many changes from the book, apparently. So this was likely a case where, as is often true, the book was better than the movie.

We have to remember this was written in 1997. It seems to me it’s aged pretty well, although
today’s police tech is likely quite different.

There’s some grisly stuff and violence here, so trigger warnings for those sensitive to violence. I’m sometimes one of those people who can’t get through really brutal books or movies, but I was able to finish this because it wasn’t what I call “violence porn” which dwells lovingly on the sadism. The author tactfully allows most of the really bad stuff take place off stage. The downside of that is that the suspense is pretty minimal. Crime novels should be suspenseful, but there wasn’t much of that here.

In fact, I didn’t even find most of the book really scary. So if you’re a reader that likes your crime stories terrifying, this won’t be for you.

What held and kept my interest was the unusual main character, Lincoln Rhyme. He is the former head of NYPD IRD (their investigation and resource division). He’s now a civilian, because an accident during a police investigation left him quadriplegic. Because of lawsuit settlements, etc., he’s financially secure. He’s still a brilliant criminalist (expert in forensic evidence) and polymath with an encyclopedic knowledge of forensics and NY City, and an amazing memory for detail. He’s obsessively interested in evidence and has a genius’s instinct for connecting the dots. He can also be an overbearing bully, driven by his strong desire to solve crimes and his assumption that he’ll get his own way. I think that the quadriplegic’s frustration at his lack of control of his world and dependence on others must also contribute to Lincoln’s at times bullying manner. Fortunately, there are a few around him that stand up to him when he’s being a jerk. Most notably, Thom, his acerbic personal assistant. And Lincoln listens to their feedback. But since his accident, Lincoln’s world has shrink. He’s become a recluse except for house calls from medical people. He’s been contemplating suicide for awhile.

All this changes when a vicious serial killer starts striking vulnerable New Yorkers (mainly women, but also elderly and children). These murders are happening before and during a big U.N. conference, so city officials are understandably nervous about the bad publicity for NY City. NYPD requests Rhyme’s assistance, as his replacement at IRD is just not in Rhyme’s league.

So a team coalesces around Rhyme. Their headquarters are in his bedroom, as his mobility is obviously limited. A few of the secondary players are interesting too (though none as compellling as Rhyme). Notable are the capable, caring, and acid tongued Thom, whose confession that he wants to be Judy Garland is probably a wink to his homosexuality; and Officer Amanda Sachs, a lovely rookie cop who couldn't care less about her beauty, has a drive to excel, and thinks she wants out of street policing.

For awhile I thought this was just a routine and formulaic police procedural/crime novel centering on a brilliant detective, but the ending caught me entirely by surprise. Also, Lincoln Rhyme is an unusual character even in a genre which has lots of eccentric detectives as main characters.

I enjoyed the ride, although I didn’t find this exceptional, just fun. Of course, it helped that I’m a native New Yorker who still lives in NY City. So the whole scenario took place on turf with which I’m quite familiar.

The audio reader, Connor O’Brien, wasn’t so good (although I’ve heard worse). He read the narration in a flat voice like an android or a space ship’s AI, although he did vary his voice for the characters. A better reader might have brought this to life in a way he didn’t. Still, he didn’t ruin the book.

I read a Lincoln Rhyme book a while ago, so thought I would start at the beginning of the series. Although I saw the film ages ago, that did not spoil the book at all - excellent character development, massive knowledge and detail of the forensic process, and expertly plotted. Brilliant!

https://poseidons99.wordpress.com/201...

By far, Jeffery Deaver is the one author with that uncanny ability to develop plot twists and very complex characters that leave you stunned to the end. If you've seen the movie, trust me, the books are far more ingenious and developed as compared to what we were presented with on the silver screen. The Bone Collector is a series novel starring Lincoln Rhyme, our famous forensics expert bound to his bed and mobile wheelchair.

Reading this novel I am reminded to never commit a crime. The art of forensics as described by Deaver leaves one little doubt as to trace evidence left behind at a crime scene. Of course, this leaves Deaver no choice but to create such stunning criminal minds that they are indeed a match for our hero Lincoln Rhyme...that the possibility does exist to get away with it in spite of Mr. Rhyme's calculating mind.

But it's not just about the crime...primarily Deaver takes his time as he develops his cast of characters across a whole series of ingenious books...enveloping all of the primary human emotions within such characters: from romance, to jealousy, to hatred, to loyalty, betrayal, and so forth.

P.S. Same review for the whole series. If you've read this review of Lincoln Rhyme, you've read them all.

The story follows Lincoln Rhyme, a former forensic police detective who is now a paraplegic, and Amelia Sachs, a young police officer. Rhyme is the foremost expert in forensic analysis, while Sachs is a promising detective with extraordinary talent. Together, they form an exceptional team to solve complex cases.
Rhyme is a deductive genius confined to a wheelchair. His paraplegia has made him bitter and withdrawn; he expresses a desire to end his life on several occasions. This request raises ethical and moral questions about an individual's right to decide when and how to end their life, especially in situations of severe suffering or disability. However, his work as a forensic consultant offers him a kind of redemption. Hunting criminals and solving cases become his raison d'être, bringing a sense of purpose and passion back into his life.
Jeffery Deaver's "The Bone Collector" is not only a breathtaking thriller with an incredible race against time but also a book with deep ethics that raises important questions about life and individual rights.

I absolutely love Jeffery Deaver, his writing style just keeps you hooked and makes you think of the book even when you aren't reading it.

I never watched the film for this book and I am so glad that I didn't as I don't think that it could live up to what my imagination went through while I was reading this book. The twists and turns in this book were not what I expected at all, the characters and settings are so well described you can close your eyes and picture yourself watching them, seeing exactly what they are doing.

I have read other Jeffery Deaver books before but thought I'd finally read this one, I have been meaning to read it for awhile and just couldn't wait any longer (also helped that I had a great reading buddy to enjoy the experience with), if you haven't read any Jeffery Deaver books then I would recommend this one, not just because it is the introduction of Lincoln Rhyme (who is just an amazing character) but because it sends you on a journey while reading it, one that no film could ever compare too and I don't really think anyone could explains what happens in the book and make it as good as it is.

I will always love his books and his writing style, to me it is like no one else, I can easily read his books so quickly, because they are fast paced and they make you want to read on, make you want to miss some sleep just so you can read some more of it.

Hopefully my enthusiastic review will make you want to read this book if you haven't before, and if you have watched the film, I would still recommend reading the book as to me films just cant capture what a book can do!