Robin M. (robinmy) - , reviewed on 9/28/2021 + 2104 more book reviews

Forensic Expert and Criminalist Lincoln Rhyme left the police force after an accident left him paralyzed from the neck down. Now the police are asking for his help. Three eyewitnesses are set to testify in 48 hours against a rich businessman. Rumors are that a known hitman, the Coffin Dancer, has been hired to kill them so they cannot testify. Last night one of them died when the plane he was piloting exploded. Police are asking Lincoln, along with his protegee Amelia Sachs, to hunt down this killer before he eliminates the other two witnesses.

This is the second book in Jeffery Deaver's Lincoln Rhyme series. I have mixed feelings about it. I thought the pacing of this story was very uneven. It felt like this book went back and forth from intense suspense scenes to long detailed forensic analysis. There were several scenes where Lincoln and the hitman are playing cat and mouse. I couldn't put the book down and had no idea what would happen next. Unfortunately, there were several times that we had pages and pages of forensic analysis. There were way too many details for me to follow.

Jeffery Deaver gave us some well-developed characters in this book. One of the witnesses, a female pilot whose husband died in the explosion, was an enigma to me. Her attitude about being put into protective custody was crazy. I would feel sorry for her on one page; and want to slap some sense into her on the next. The NYPD bodyguard that is put on her was another great character that stood out. On the flip side, we spent way too much time in the killer's head. He fantasized about being a soldier and kept talking about crawling worms. I was sick of that very fast. Overall, I liked the suspense, but had problems with other parts of the book. My rating: 3.5 Stars.

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