Having recently read The Empty Chair, The Bone Collector, The Stone Monkey, The Vanished Man and, finished yesterday, The Coffin Dancer, I thought I had completed the Lincoln Rhyme series of novels by Jeffery Deaver. That is certainly quite a chunk of work by one author to get through in under a couple of months.

Checking Deaver’s website, it turns out not to be the case as there are two more to go. However, I’ve certainly mined out what both of the local libraries have in stock. Overall, they are a reasonable series of thrillers. Particularly with the later books, each one introduces a new flavour (such as Chinese customs or stage magic) and I appreciate the research that goes into them.

However, as I’ve mentioned in my earlier reviews, they take a lot of sharp turns; they can hardly be called “unexpected” because there are so many of them. These are what I think let Deaver’s writing down. Like a stage illusionist, he puts the central characters of the mystery in stage view but holds back essential details. Done once or twice, this can be gripping but, repeated too many times, it starts to feel like a cheap trick.

Anyway, that’s enough Deaver for now… certainly until the library gets more in the Rhyme series!

Tags: jeffrey deaver, lincoln rhyme, book reviews