Evening All,

Hope everyone is well and keeping safe. I seem to open every blog post with that statement lately, but it’s honestly the first thing that I think of with everything going in the world. I’ve had a fairly good week so far. Two birthdays in our house (one human, one dog) and a relatively decent work week. Not a lot else going on other than me spending evenings reading and enjoying Christmas cosiness.

Book 📖

Admittedly, I have probably been living under a rock for most of my life, because I knew nothing of a Lincoln Rhyme series until my partner recommended it to me a short time ago. I wanted to set myself a challenge of reading a lengthy series so I started where you’re supposed to, with the first book; The Bone Collector by @JefferyDeaver.

Description 🔖

Lincoln Rhyme was known in New York for being the go to criminologist and considered a forensic genius. His career came to an abrupt halt when he was involved in a horrific accident, that is until someone starts kidnapping and killing people in the city. Rhyme is drafted in to help catch the killer and along with officer Amelia Sachs they must gather evidence and follow complex clues to find the next victim.

The investigation takes the team back in time to New York City’s dark past and deep into the mind of an individual who is intent on stripping his victims all the way down to the bone. The victims and the clues keep coming, but will Rhyme and Sachs be able to keep up?

General Thoughts 🤔

There is no preamble with this book. The drama starts immediately and I was thrust into the investigation room/living room of Rhyme straight away. I have to admit that at the beginning I didn’t know how I was going to get on with all of the technical terms that were used but that very quickly passed and I found myself understanding it all or at least the context of it soon enough. The story is so fast paced, I found that I hadn’t the time to concentrate on the complicated equipment and abbreviations, I had to keep those pages turning to find out where the investigation was going to go next.

Riveting is the best word I can think of to describe this book. There isn’t a boring moment, back story or filler chapter. It’s jam packed with action, detail and tension and the further I got into the book, the more I wanted. I couldn’t turn the pages in this book quick enough. There were countless audible gasps that came from me and plenty of “But nooooooo” moments.

Characters 👫👬👭

I have to start with Rhyme. I had very mixed feelings about his character to begin with and thought him to be bitter and full of hate; probably for himself mostly. But it was fascinating to see his character evolve as the investigation progressed and he was back doing what he was good at. I loved the relationship between Rhyme and Thom. It seemed obvious to me that there was a lot of love between the two of them that manifested itself in insults and sarcasm.

I liked Sachs immediately and grew to love her more and more throughout the book. The relationship between Sachs and Rhyme was an unlikely one but an extremely productive one. They learnt to work together under great pressure and I think understood each other much better by the end of the story.

Writing Style ✍️

As I mentioned above, I really did think I was going to struggle with the terminology to begin with but upon reflection I think it’s impressive that it was all included. I can’t imagine the amount of research that would have had to go into writing this book.

I love me some tension in a thriller and this book is bursting with it. I can’t even put my finger on what made the whole thing as tense as it was other than fantastic writing. I wouldn’t have guessed the ending of the book if my life had depended upon it. It took me a while to pick my jaw back up after it became obvious.

Conclusion & Scoring 🏅

I’m almost ashamed that I’ve only just found this book and it’s series. If I wrote down all of the things that I love in a thriller book, The Bone Collector would be the output of that list. I was surprised to see just how long ago the book was published, I would never have guessed from reading it. I’ve never seen the film so no doubt I’ll be watching that soon, but in the meantime; 1 down and 13 to go!!

😍😍😍😍😍