The Coffin Dancer

Starred review from August 3, 1998
Deaver has come a long way since his Rune novels (Manhattan Is My Beat; Death of a Blue Movie Star), and the measure of his growth as a writer is on display in this taut sequel to the bestselling The Bone Collector, starring quadriplegic forensic specialist Lincoln Rhyme. Rhyme is called in to track down a contract killer, known as the Coffin Dancer, who has been hired to eliminate three witnesses in the upcoming federal trial of Philip Hansen. The trial is set to begin just 48 hours from the novel's (literally) explosive beginning. Rhyme and his beautiful assistant, detective Amelia Sachs, have just that much time to ID the Dancer and keep him from murdering the remaining witnesses. Yet Rhyme has personal reasons to track the Dancer, which come out in just one of the revelations and reversals that punctuate this thriller like a string of firecrackers. The pace, energized by Deaver's precise attention, never flags; and if the romantic angle is a little obvious (Rhyme's seeming concern for one of the Dancer's female targets sparks Amelia's jealousy), Deaver manages to renovate many of the hoariest conventions of the ticking-clock-serial-murder subgenre. Another original renovation is his Nero Wolfe-ish Rhyme--a detective who lives the life of the mind by necessity, not choice, and who thinks of everything but can't even pick up a phone without help. Trust Deaver's superb plotting and brisk, no-nonsense prose to spin fresh gold from tired straw. Literary Guild main selection; Doubleday Book Club featured alternate; Reader's Digest Condensed Book Club.

July 1, 1998
If you could imagine James Bond as Brenda K. Starr and Sherlock Holmes as a quadriplegic with a penchant for solving arcane forensic clues, this suspenseful cat-and-mouse exercise should be easy to enjoy. This is Deaver's second title (after Bone Collector, LJ 2/1/97) featuring the dynamic duo of detective Lincoln Rhyme and the gutsy redhead Amelia Sachs. After a suspicious bombing of a company aircraft, the New York metropolitan area becomes the stomping ground of the crafty hit-man-of-many-faces, The Coffin Dancer. He matches wits with officers Rhyme and Sachs as he comes ever closer to his next targets. Quick to the punch, The Coffin Dancer is diabolically packed with the good stuff: cover-ups, mystery, action. A perfect selection for mainstream fiction collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 4/1/98.]--Ahmad Wright, "Library Journal"

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