Krishna
We have reviewed The Empty Chair by the same author earlier. This is the book that started the series involving Lincoln Rhymes, who is one of the most fascinating detectives in the mystery genre.
And Jeffery’s style takes some getting used to as well. Reading back the comments I wrote in the earlier work, I now see that the style is deliberate. Yes, Jeffery goes in for some Hollywood blockbuster scenes for effect. That makes the stories less plausible in real life but really amplify the shock value of the twists and makes for one hell of a page turner. This book also has its share of improbable twists – how the killer finds Sachs almost at will and how the end twist is not the end twist and there is a blockbuster of a twist waiting just behind it. But when you pick up a Deaver book, I am beginning to realize, you just go with the flow – as you would enjoy a Mission Impossible story or a Superhero Marvel movie. You enjoy the ride, but don’t inspect the scenery closely. And you will do just fine.
TJ and John get out of the airport and take a cab. Too late, they realize that the cab’s all inner handles have been removed and they are being kidnapped. Amelia Sachs goes searching for the bodies – some tipper says ‘it would be best if they died’, which is mysterious in itself.
She finds the body with the hand sticking up and realizes that the big male who had died there had a terrible few last minutes. She is upbraided by her superior for stopping the train and the traffic to protect evidence. And she is angry.
We learn that TJ is being held captive by a masked man.
Meanwhile Lincoln Rhymes is living like a slob in an apartment, much to the disgust of his assistant Thom. Lincoln seems uninterested when the FBI agents Sellitto and Banks come seeking his help. Lincoln is not interested as his sole project is how to die. However, he tells the detectives what they had missed. The murder was done in a different place; the killer buried the man with the girl’s wedding ring jutting out on the finger as a ‘come and get me’ warning; that they need to look for that secret place; that this place where they found the body was reached by an underground tunnel. Fascinating deductions and prior knowledge.
His doctor Green who comes to ‘kind of help him die’ learns that the accident was due to a beam in a construction site falling on him when he went investigating – and that he is the foremost pathologist.
He gets slowly drawn into the case and Amelia is asked to help him. (As those of you who have read the series know, they form a team in all subsequent books).
He sees things from the stone they found and other evidence things that the others do not.
He realizes that the high nitrogen content of the soil collected comes from manure. He realizes that the killer is obsessed with historical buildings
Meanwhile the killer kidnaps another girl and then ties him up underground to be fed to the rats, after making bone deep cuts into her. With the help of Amelia, Lincoln is able to rescue her but Amelia is disgusted with his putting clue protection over the safety of the girl who was about to be eaten alive by rats.
When the FBI come and forcibly take the case away from Lincoln, she gives him a piece of her mind and storms out. She is asked to debrief the FBI before being transferred to another division.
LIncoln begins to realize that he for the first time was not depressed and that he is intensely interested in criminal investigations, notwithstanding his disability.
Meanwhile, due to Sach’s complaint to her superior about Lincoln’s unorthodox methods, FBI comes to know of the investigation and ‘the Chameleon’ takes it forcibly away.
They think they have the culprit. Amelia brings evidence back illegally to Rhymes and he manages to save the next victim who was designed to drown in high tide under a bridge.
FBI meanwhile realize that they do not have the killer and the fingerprint was faked and then they come roaring back to Rhyme to reclaim their evidence.
Then the FBI director hands the case back over to Rhymes. When Rhymes gets an attack, he decides to ‘retire’ and Sachs, when she understands what he is trying to do, barges in and arrests the doctor who has promised to help him die.
Meanwhile, Caroline, handcuffed, tries to escape with all her energy and wits. She discovers there is a bomb nearby.
Meanwhile Sachs and Rhymes connect on a personal level.
How they come to guess the perps place and how she goes in to rescue the girl who had been abandoned in the midst of dangerous wild dogs and how Amelia sees other gruesome scenes – all of these are wonderful to read (for instance, the dichotomy where they found some red and black fibres when the witness said that the masked perp had only a black glove) and too tame if I told you here. Just for the exciting experience of reading a book full of fast paced detection and action, you cannot beat Jeffrey Deaver.
And the final shock after the initial shock of the identity of the Bone Collector is amazing.
This is a page turner of an entertainment.
8/10
– – Krishna