Coffin Dancer - Softcover

Deaver, Jeffery

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0671024094 ISBN 13: 9780671024093

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 1999

Synopsis

Detective Lincoln Rhymes, the foremost criminalist in the NYPD, is put on the trail of the Coffin Dancer, a cunning professional killer who has continually alluded the police. Rhymes - -a quadriplegic since a line-of-duty accident -- must use his wits to track this brilliant killer who's been hired to eliminate three witnesses in the last hours before their grand jury testimony. Rhyme works with his eyes and ears, New York cop Amelia Sachs, to gather information from trace evidence at the crime scene (for a start, scrapings from the tires of the emergency vehicles that responded to the Chicago crash) to nail him, or at least to predict his next move and head him off. In the resulting game of cat-and- mouse, both Rhyme and the Dancer are constantly subject to unbelievably timely hunches and brain waves that keep their deadly shuttlecock in play down to the wire. Fair warning to newcomers: Author Deaver is just as cunning and deceptive as his killer; don't assume he's run out of tricks until you've run out of pages. By the author of "The Bone Collector."

About this title

Review

This return engagement for quadriplegic criminologist Lincoln Rhyme is strong on forensic details as he tracks an elusive assassin known only by the tattoo that gives this fast-paced thriller its title.

Three witnesses to a murder could put a millionaire arms dealer behind bars for good. When one of them, the co-owner of Hudson Air, is blown up in a plane bombing with the Dancer's fingerprints all over it, the FBI takes the other witnesses into protective custody. Only Rhyme can decipher a crime scene, read the residue of a bombing or identify a handful of dirt well enough to keep up with the killer. Helped by Amelia Sachs, his brilliant and able-bodied assistant, Rhyme traces the Dancer through Manhattan streets, airports and subways. The psychological tension builds rapidly from page one all the way through to the stunning and unexpected denouement. At the same time, Jeffery Deaver slowly develops the against-all-odds love affair between Rhyme and Sachs. Fans of Patricia Cornwell and others in the growing subgenre of forensic thrillers will find a lot to enjoy in Deaver's latest. --Jane Adams

Review

St. Petersburg Times Readers who like "insider information" on police and FBI lingo will enjoy details Deaver adds to the dialogue. Kirkus Reviews Fair warning to newcomers: Author Deaver is just as cunning and deceptive as his killer; don't assume he's run out of tricks until you've run out of pages. Library Journal Quick to the punch, The Coffin Dancer is diabolically packed with the good stuff: coverups, mystery, action. Publishers Weekly Revelations and reversals punctuate this thriller like a string of firecrackers....Superb plotting and brisk, no-nonsense prose. USA Today Deaver revs up the already supercharged tension by cramming all of the action in The Coffin Dancer into forty-eight hours. People Deaver...is a master of ticking-bomb suspense... Rhyme, now a forensic consultant, is more relentless than ever. Especially when, as in his chilling new case, he has a personal score to settle. Booklist Intense and heart-stopping...leaves readers gasping at the stunning climax. People Deaver is a master of ticking-bomb suspense. San Jose Mercury News This is as good as it gets....The Lincoln Rhyme series is simply outstanding.

Edition details

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0671024094
• ISBN 13: 9780671024093
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 532