The Coffin Dancer (1998)

How do i love this series let me count the ways...... Bring on the next one !!! ( )

Wow. That's all I have. What a fantastic second book in The Lincoln Rhymes series.

It's a year since the events in the first book. Lincoln is now working as a consultant to the police and FBI with Amelia assisting him. Pulled into a case involving the hitman named as "The Coffin Dancer" Rhymes has personal reasons for bringing him down.

I loved Rhymes in this one. He was less acidic in his interactions with everyone. Though it's clear something is off with Amelia, though Rhymes ignores it since he is focused on the case and keeping her safe.

Amelia has definitely learned a lot from Rhymes. Though she's starting to realize she wants more out of the relationship. I loved all of the scenes with Amelia walking the scenes and investigating. Her reactions to one of the witnesses started to feel a bit much though.

The secondary characters shine in this one too. Rhymes and Amelia are doing what they can to track down the Coffin Dancer to stop him from killing two witnesses. One of the witnesses, a former Navy pilot has to deal with the fact she's lost a husband and is doing what she can to save their business.

We once again have the killer's POV in this one. That was the weakest part of the book. I also don't want to read the words "worm" or "wormy" for a long time.

The writing had a lot of technical aspects in it, and though I couldn't follow all of the flying jargon, I got the gist of it.

The flow was a little off when we shifted to The Coffin Dancer. Everything else was pitch perfect too.

Once again New York shines in this one. But instead of random historical areas, this time we focus on airfields and safe houses.

The ending has a great twist and a wonderful next chapter for Lincoln and Amelia. ( )

“He’s got - or had, at least - a tattoo on his upper arm: the Grim Reaper dancing with a woman in front of a coffin.” The ‘Dance Macabre’.

He is a killer extraordinaire , who hears a militaristic voice commanding him in his head, and he’s afraid of ‘worms’ (they make him feel “cringey”). And Lincoln and his crew have to stop him - at all costs! Lincoln the Worm.

Good read and good second book featuring Lincoln Rhyme! I really liked the back and forth “chess match” between Lincoln and ‘The Dancer’! Great moves and counter moves by both till the end, and ending that I didn't see coming at all! ‘The Dancer’ is one heck of a bad guy! I already have the next book on my shelf!

“In the valley of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.” ( )

A great read by one of my favorite authors. ( )

A while ago I read a short novel by Mr. Deaver and had to put it down about a quarter in. At the time I couldn't figure out why I couldn't continue. About a week ago I watched The Bone Collected, the first Lincoln Rhyme story and thought: why not pick up the sequel to the movie. This time around I made it to just over half way. But at least I can now verbalize what bothers me about Mr. Deaver's writing.

Every novel uses a theme or a mechanism that situates the book and sets the tone. For example, in the case of Harry Potter it's the existence of a magical world, in the case of Agatha Christie it's mystery and suspense. In the case of Mr. Deaver it's sadism. I can take one or two occurrences of Sadism if it's justified in the context of the novel, but in the case of these books you're confronted with it within the first few pages and it doesn't relent. No matter the context or the situation, the foundation of a scene is some form of sadism, including tender moments between Lincoln Rhyme and his love interest, which seems to revolve more about control than respect. At some point you really have to wonder about the mindset of the author.

Although the writing is qualitatively high, needless to say these books are not for me. ( )