El coleccionista de huesos

Creepy yet fascinating it takes forensic crime stories to a new level

It's not often a character like Lincoln Rhyme is created. Paralyzed from the neck down, his encyclopedic brain coughs up remarkable forensic and historical elements associated with the crime. Battling with his inner demon, he's focused on ending his life until the bone collector surfaces in the form of a cab driver. A tour de force, the story engages at many levels and like all well crafted mysteries explodes with momentum towards the end. Having seen the Denzel Washington film, the book adds more depth, details, victims, characters and forensic crime solving details making it a more evocative experience. As it turns out, the screenplay flip flops the ethnicity of both Lincoln Rhyme and his caretaker and like many films, leaves out important plot elements. Regardless, Jeffrey Deaver is a master crime novelist and worth reading.

DISGUSTING, YET RIVETING!

The Bone Collector is a police procedural/thriller about a sick and twisted serial killer and the criminologist who brings him down.

There are over 2,500 reviews and over 150,000 ratings of this book on Goodreads, so mine doesn’t really matter at this point, but I will post one anyway!

This is a complex, intricately plotted sick and twisted tale with intelligent MC’s and a sick and twisted killer. I have read some later books in the series, so it was interesting to read the first book. I was able to gain some insight into how this series and relationships developed, especially the relationship between Sachs and Rhyme. Like some of the later books, the plot is complicated and has many threads. I enjoyed seeing all of the threads come together.

I did not enjoy the level of detail included in the killer’s scenes. This sick individual cut people down to the bone, essentially skinning them alive. There is one scene involving rats feasting on a victim that caused me to put this book down for several days. And the final scene with the killer being taken down was absolutely disgusting!

However, by the time I got to the most brutal of passages, I was hooked which compelled me to pick this book up again but had I not been, I don’t know if I could have done it. I read some sick and twisted books, but this book takes things to another level.

Trigger Warnings: Almost everything imaginable!

I won a copy of this book in a Goodreads giveaway!

RTC

I can't believe I haven't read anything by this author before - was I in a fugue? I read this as part of - The Lincoln Rhyme Collection books 1 - 4. Because I seen the movie first - a myriad of times - I couldn't help but visualise Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie in their respective roles. Bad idea. In the book, Rhyme is Caucasian and Amelia Sachs' is a fiery redhead. So that took some getting used to.

There's a killer on the loose - and ex IRD (Investigation and Resource Division) head, Lincoln Rhyme (a C4 Quadriplegic), has two unwelcome visitors, Lon Sellitto and Jerry Banks, requesting his assistance on a case. Rhyme' is in a very dark place and has a date with Dr. Berger of the Lethe Society (death doctor) - and he's adamant that nothing is going to change his mind.

He gradually gets interested (though he still wants to die), and requests the officer who found the first victim, Amelia Sachs, be brought in - as she showed ingenuity - by sealing off the crime scene. Although, not everyone is impressed, when she stops the traffic, whilst the UN conference is in town.

The first two victims were passengers in a taxi, John Ulbercht and T.J. Colfax. Sachs' was the officer who found Ulbercht - and now it's a race against time to try and find/save the second kidnap victim, Tammie Jean Colfax. The killer leaves clues, so...it's just a case of deciphering what the unsub is telling them.

Rhyme' lives in a Gothic style townhouse on the Upper West Side of the city, overlooking Central Park - and his bedroom on the second floor, soon becomes the CP (Command Post) - which is bustling with activity. Thom, his aide, is designated the task of adding annotations to a poster, basically detailing what they know about Unsub 823 (Unknown Subject) - so far. Mel Cooper, turns Rhyme's bedroom into a mini lab, so he does a lot of tests on the samples collected by Sachs' from different crime scenes. The Hardy Boys, Bedding and Saul - do the canvassing, and they're skillful in interviewing people who live close to crime scenes - and Sachs' is Rhymes eyes and ears - and isn't too pleased about it; as she was supposed to be transferring to Public Affairs at noon, for a training session - and she's been waiting eight months for this reassignment.

I really enjoyed the book - though some of the authors/characters dialect was a bit antiquated. You've got words like: Limo'd, brother'd, whatta, myself'd, this's, offa (off of), figger (figure), grounds're, dincha (didn't you), he'd've, ever'body, to've, etc. So that took some getting used to, as well. There's a few acronyms throughout, though most of those are explained in the following sentence/paragraph via the author or character: COC ( Chain Of Custody), CI (Confidential Informant), ESU (Emergency Services Unit), PERT (Physical Evidence Response Team), ALS (Alternative Light Source.) The appendix at the end, explains some of them in more detail.

In summation: This was very good. I liked the forensic work, which was done in minute detail, at times, with Sachs' walking the grid: north/south - then perpendicular - east to west - looking for clues, in the hope of catching the killer, as well as finding the location of the next victim. There's a lot of humour and banter throughout, so that was quite amusing, too.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve found a book worthy of a five star rating, and I’m so happy to have found my first of hopefully many for the year! Jeffrey Deaver’s writing is intelligent and detailed. I enjoyed the protagonists in the story, and how their differing personalities quickly come together. I hope to find this much enjoyment as I continue through the series.

n  n    THERE WILL BE SPOILERS THROUGHOUT THIS REVIEWn  n

18/8 - I have seen the movie a number times so I know who the killer is, but I can't remember his exact motive, so at least there'll be one surprise for me at the end. I really enjoyed the movie and was always disappointed that there weren't further instalments in the series. For me, Angelina Jolie is Amelia and Denzel Washington is Lincoln Rhyme (funny that they've both got American president's names), they are now inextricably linked. I will never be able to think about Rhyme or Sachs without seeing them as the actor's portrayals of them.

I'm loving the extra details I'm getting from the book that weren't included in the movie due to time constraints. More details about the first two victims (who are completely different people in the movie), more background on both Sachs and Rhyme, including Rhyme's connections in the police force. It's funny what details get left by the wayside on the journey between a book and the movie/tv show. In the movie Amelia's last name is changed from Sachs to Donaghy (I never get the reasons behind name changes, they seem so arbitrary and pointless) and her arthritis is no longer a contributing factor in her desire to leave Patrol. In fact if I remember rightly there's no mention of her wanting to leave Patrol, she just does spontaneously in order to help Rhyme and solve the case. To be continued...

21/8 - Bloody review-eating website! I can't remember all of what I wrote before it got eaten, but it went something like this. Now that I've finished the book it turns out that the movie is quite different from the book - everyone except Lincoln has had their name changed (or their race, or gender), the killer and his motives are different, the victims are all different as are whether or not they survive, what he does to the victims and the clues he leaves are different. Only Lincoln and the general idea of the story are carried over from the book to the movie.

I really enjoyed the frantic pace injected into the 'evidence examining' scenes by the constant pressure of getting to the victims before they die. In my head I could see the camera flicking from one character to another as Rhyme fires off questions or instructions regarding some bit of evidence or other. I think I might enjoy the next book even more than this one, not having any preconceived notions of the plot, except for what Rhyme and Amelia look like.

PopSugar 2015 Reading Challenge: A Mystery of Thriller

A serial killer is on the loose in New York City, and it is up to quadriplegic forensic specialist Lincoln Rhyme and his unwilling assistant Amelia Sachs to comb the crime scenes for clues that can bring the killer to justice. Despite the unrealistic behavior of the killer - whose ability to pull off a series of complicated kidnappings and murders is almost supernatural - and the silly ending, the plot remains compelling due to the fascinating crime scene analysis as well as the friction and heat generated by Rhyme and Sachs. The abysmal film version turned Rhyme from Caucasian to African-American (assumedly to bring more contrast to the main characters) which was the only improvement it made over the far superior source material.

Oh my goodness what a ride

I didn’t watch the movie
But enjoyed the 37 chapters that Deaver wrote
Sculpted

The story line
The cast
The deduction and clues
And finally the unsub