Reading Jeffery Deaver's first novel featuring criminalist Lincoln Rhyme for the fourth time feels as fresh as when I first read it many years ago.
Deaver skillfully weaves together an excellent plot, peopled with well drawn characters & enchances this with his descriptions of New York City. This 25th anniversary edition features an introduction by the author in which he tells how he used Sherock Holmes & his methods of deduction as a basis for the character of Lincoln Rhyme. Despite having read all of the Holmes & Rhyme stories over the years I'd never noticed this connection before.
This was an ideal read before my wife & I visit New York for our September holiday. However, based on the opening chapter of The Bone Collector, I don't think we'll get into a yellow cab when we leave JFK Airport!

3.25 Stars — A well thought out plot line helps save this seemingly rushed narrative from being average. The second third especially is as pulsating and entertaining as just about any thriller I’ve read this year!

The lead characters here aren’t entirely well fleshed-out, but they are given enough of a chance to be liked, to be rooted for and again whilst it is all encompassed by a background of moving a little too fast at times, the guessing game is smooth and offers some genuinely interesting footnotes as you explore the sadistic nature of a psychopath and the mysteriously inhibited nature of the man chasing him.

The final third could’ve made this either a four-star or a 2.5-3 Star and it is here I’m still hesitant to go all-in on thanks to a few dreary passages that ruin the pace set early-on and makes the narrative feel disjointed and had the pace been slower early or vice-versa, well let’s say consistency would’ve been a nice vessel in order to allow a better score.

TRIGGER WARNINGS FOR SUICIDAL REFERENCES IN THIS BOOK AND THROUGHOUT MY REVIEW.

This is the first instalment in the Lincoln Rhyme series.

Lincoln Rhymes was once a genius in the field of criminology, often finding tiny clues that others have overlooked and seeing each crime scene from his own, unique perspective. Now he wants to die. It has been three years since the accident that resulted in his incapacitated state and the burden of living his life beholden to others has become too much for him. Assisted suicide feels like his only future option, but he is urged to aid in the capture of one more criminal before the final deed is done.

This book was penned quite a few years ago and so there was the inclusion of a few lines that were in a tasteless or pointless style. These made me wince and served no purpose to the plot or in the creation of a character. The repeated references to the body size of one side-character was just one such instance and resulted in my four, instead of five, star rating.

This, however, was my only source of discontent within this blood-soaked and brutally-rendered storyline. It was as gripping as it was entertaining and I quickly became as plagued by the need to hunt down this serial killer as the police tasked to do just that. I believe that the multiple insights to his victims' suffering aided in aligning me so completely with Lincoln and his team, and also ensured it intimately delivered the horror of his actions.

I was unprepared for the criminal's perspective to feature, which also brought with it an abundance of harrowing and tragic scenes of torture from his own delighted viewpoint. But not even when those solving the case were left to examine the remains he left behind was the reader spared any of the intricate details about the horrors he inflicted . Deaver repeatedly brought each scene to harrowing and sickening vividity!

Asides from this being an entirely engrossing thriller, the two characters who centred it were provided with their own intriguing side-plots. Lincoln's emotional and physical struggles plagued him every single day and I thought Deaver handled these with sensitivity but also authenticity. Here, too, he did not shy away from presenting suffering with anything but the harsh glare of stark reality and, despite only having read one book from him, this feels like his signature style.

Amelia is the individual working underneath Lincoln and the one burdened with bearing his harsh retorts and acting out his hard demands. She was provided with her own personal character arc and I enjoyed seeing her blossom as she continued to come ever closer to both the man she sought and also the man who aided her in capturing him.

“You work too hard. Amie, this case of yours ... it wasn’t dangerous, was it?
“I was just doing the technical stuff, Mom. Crime scene. It doesn’t get any safer than that.”

On her last day as a street cop, before moving to a desk job, Amelia Sachs is sent to investigate a reported murder near the train tracks in a derelict New York suburb. What she discovers there is definitely not for the squeamish, and very soon Amie will be engaged in one of the most urgent and most dangerous manhunts the metropolis has ever witnessed. Which makes her quaint remark on the phone to her mother rather funny. In the darkest shades of black available in print.

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This was my second in a row airplane read, after “To Catch a Thief” , and also my very first foray into Jeffery Deaver. I must say: I’m impressed! I went in with rather low expectations, as I prefer classic hardboiled or noir crime novels to the modern high octane offerings. I now believe Deaver is simply one of the best writers in the subgenre, based so far on my first encounter with his lead detective Lincoln Rhyme.

Something was nagging at Rhyme. An infuriating itch – the curse of all quads – though in this case it was an intellectual itch. The kind that had plagued Rhyme all his life.”

A quad is a quadriplegic patient, somebody who lost all muscle control bellow the neck. Rhyme, the former chief forensic expert on the New York police force, got his injuries in the line of duty, when a heavy timber frame fell on his head at a crime scene. Now, after three years of hospital beds, chronic pain and humiliating daily mishaps, Lincoln Rhyme is only interested in how to get a doctor to assist him in ending his life. Then his former colleagues on the force come to him with the case Amelia Sachs investigated, and Rhyme discovers that he may have lost everything, but he still has his passion for solving puzzles. The unknown perpetrator of the murder has intentionally left clues at the crime scene that seem to lead to his next victim. It seems he wants to be stopped, if only the cops manage to decrypt his messages in time.

Together, the bedridden forensic expert and the glamorous redhead, are poring over the mysterious artifacts in a race against time to put a stop to this crime spree. What makes Deaver stand out from a crowded field of would-be bestsellers is his rigorous approach to the scientific angle of a crime scene investigation (I actually believe the TV series CSI was inspired by the Lincoln Rhyme series) , the richness of detail regarding the city and the real clever developments in the plot, put there not only for their shocking value, but as an illustration of the salient points in the police procedures described. Oh, and did I mention this is a true-blood page-turner, the kind that keeps you awake until morning in order to finally find out whodunit?

A criminalist is a renaissance man.
He’s got to know botany, geology, ballistics, medicine, chemistry, literature, engineering. If he knows facts – that ash with a high strontium content probably came from a highway flare, that ‘facta’ is Portuguese for knife, that Ethiopian diners use no utensils and eat with their right hands exclusively, that a slug with five land-and-groove rifling marks, right twist, could not have been fired from a Colt pistol – if he knows these things he may just make the connection that places an unsub* at the crime scene.

* unsub = unknown subject

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Revising my notes a couple of weeks after finishing the novel, I felt the need to curb my enthusiasm a little, down to 4 stars. I still believe this is one of the best modern thrillers I’ve read, but I wonder how truly memorable the plot is? Yes, it makes for a gripping, edge of your seat experience, but it is also limited by the conventions of the genre: the timeline is just too tightly compressed, with too many murders taking place over just a couple of days, too many Hollywood-style narrow escapes, while the ending is just a tad too smart for its own good, with one too many reversals to make it credible.
But I will say this: I want to read more from Deaver, and that’s high praise considering how fast my TBR pile is growing.

I think I found a new favorite series. Rhymes mind is crazy brilliant. And I love the dynamics between him and Sachs. They make a great team, they're ingenious together.

This is my all time favorite book. When I was in high school I hated to read. The only books I would read were the cheesy movie knock off books. I read Mission: Impossible, Batman and Robin, and The Saint. My mom had said this was going to be a movie and the movie paperback edition had just come out. I read this book in record time for me and was captivated. No book had ever held my attention, or kept me up at night with a flash light because I had to find out what happened next.

Jeffery Deaver was the first real author I had ever read and he left an impression on me that has caused me to be the avid reader I am today. I have read every one of his books, some of those haven’t been in print for years and never will be again. I searched so hard years later to find a hardback first edition of this book and found one. Last year I met Deaver for the first time and had him sign my copy.

This is the first Lincoln Rhyme novel and it made me love the character so much I began to study forensics when I got to college. The Bone Collector is a vicious killer who leaves clues to his next victim at the crime scene. The victims are left in some of the most grisly situations and the suspense is so intense I had a hard time sitting still. I couldn’t read fast enough. This book and the writing style of Jeffery Deaver brought the joy of reading into my life, and helped me expand my horizons to find some of the best authors I have ever read.

This is an outstanding, (but trigger laden), dark detective crime thriller, from the highly recommended (by my friends), Jeffery Deaver. A quadriplegic, former near genius forensic criminal-ist Lincoln Rhyme is considering suicide; beat cop Amelia Sachs, daughter of a well liked and well known lifelong beat cop is considering jacking in her 'uniform' role and moving to police communications; being at the wrong place at the right time and internal police politics brings these two together to investigate, crime scene by crime scene, a seemingly deranged, but very forensic savvy kidnapper-killer on a spree, a killer so confident/deranged that he leaves clues to his next murder at his crime scenes. The case is a race against time as the rocky partnership of Rhymes and Sachs use detailed forensics, research and data gathering to try and save lives and stop the killing spree!

A truly compelling and thrilling book, with multiple pages of surprisingly interesting forensic search and analysis! What Deaver seems to excel at is making forensics interesting, to an extent using the quadriplegic Rhyme's disabilities to force the forensic investigation to almost 100% people talking and discussing issues aloud and in conversation. There have been probably hundreds of thousands of crime detective books published of which the vastly majority appear to be formulaic, is must have been a blast a fresh air when this series kicked off with it's thunderous debut. The only negative, in my opinion was the need for Amelia Sachs so beautiful, as it added nothing to the book; although Deaver could argue it might have been one of the drivers that got Hollywood to option his work and make a film from it! 8.5 out of 12., up 1.5 points since my last reading of this.

Libro muy ameno y entretenido. Mucho más bueno que la película. Está muy bien documentado. La parte del análisis de la escena del crimen se puede hacer un poco pesada para quién no disfrute de estos temas. Me han gustado mucho los personajes de Sacks y Rhyme, aunque no he podido dejar de ver a Jolie y Washington durante la lectura. Me ha resultado imposible.
Atrapa mucho. La segunda parte me la he leído muy rápido. No podía dejarlo.
El final, un poco flojo.

Very entertaining book. Much better than the movie. It is very well documented. The crime scene analysis part can be a bit heavy for those who do not enjoy these issues. I really liked the characters of Sacks and Rhyme, although I could not help seeing Jolie and Washington during the reading. I found it impossible.
Catch a lot. I read the second part very quickly. I could not leave it.
The end, a bit weak.

Everyone was right... the book is waaaaay better than the movie. I adored the characters very much. All of the down-to-earth in their own sort of way, including Lincoln. I don't know how Deaver did it, but you really feel what it's like to be his character; all trials and tribulations. I do have to admit that, after watching the movie, I believe that Denzel and Angelina played their characters very well.

The novel isn't just fast-paced, it's lightening speed! Hell, you get as much sleep as the characters do in a 24 hour period, LMAO! So many twists, turns, suspense and action, you can't help reading it until waaay after the midnight hour. What I loved about this book is the details! Whether it's the crime scene, evidence or the cop lingo (terminology of forensics)... everything is well put together, and you don't miss a beat. Snap, snap, snap, one thing right after another. This is one of the best novels I've read. Can't wait to read more of Deaver's work!

Way over the top!! Like trying to cram all 15 seasons of CSI with an element of Batman for good measures, all in one book!
I skipped through it and then had to look up the plot because I just couldn't tolerate it enough to finish reading it.

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.

Prima cosa da fare: andare immediatamente a recuperarmi il film.