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Rating: New York, Manhattan, 1997
Friday, 10:30 PM: two people are kidnapped at New York's J.F. Kennedy airport by an unknown subject.
Saturday, 9:00 AM: one of the kidnapped is found near an abandoned station. Buried alive with a hand stripped to the bone emerging from the ground, as if asking for help that never came.
Saturday, 9:30 AM: a rusty bolt, a newspaper page, and an asbestos ball are found at the crime scene. Possible clues left by the murderer.
Saturday, 10:00 AM: the case's lead detective, Lon Sellitto, decides to seek help from an external consultant. A former policeman. A man named Lincoln Rhyme.
Saturday, 12:00 PM: the hunt begins.
In a gloomy New York of the late '90s - with an important United Nations congress soon to take place in the city - the characters of this thriller classic are on the move. A mysterious murderer is the worm that infests the Big Apple, devouring it piece by piece. Sellitto, the detective assigned to the investigation, knows the case is beyond his abilities. He then decides to consult a former colleague and friend, unaware that this decision will be historic. The man in question is Lincoln Rhyme, a brilliant forensic criminologist and expert in legal medicine, and former captain of the NYPD's Scientific Unit. Rhyme, rendered quadriplegic by an incident "in the field," has lost most of his motor abilities and is forced to live semi-paralyzed. Confined to his home near Central Park, and even more so in his frustration and shame over his body following the incident, he considers assisted euthanasia to end a condition he cannot digest.
The case Sellitto puts in front of him proves to be an opportunity to return to life, a raft he can cling to while drowning in a sea of despair. Rhyme, endowed with extraordinary intelligence and culture, is the brain of the investigative team, but he needs someone to walk the crime scene in his place to collect any clue, no matter how microscopic, that could lead to the killer. Enter Amelia Sachs - the policewoman who found the body of one of the kidnapped - who will be chosen by Rhyme to be his "arm." Thus begins the coexistence of two strong characters that proves successful, leading them to face a killer obsessed with bones: a psychopath who seems to intentionally leave clues about his next victim. Yes, because the guy is having a world of fun and has no intention of stopping.
Atrocious crimes without motive may seem so at first, but only in the last chapters will the plan harbored in the killer's mind be understood. A plan studied to perfection for some time.
With "The Bone Collector," Jeffery Deaver continues the work begun earlier with "A Maiden's Grave": it's the attention to details, to forensic and scientific terms - along with the suspense, the twists, and constant reversals - that makes the difference, allowing him to create a novel that, along with "The Devil's Teardrop" (and "The Coffin Dancer"), will launch him into the throng of thriller writers, being thus defined as "the greatest living thriller author" by the Times.
A novel successful with both critics and readers, to the point that the adventures of the forensic criminologist will find space in another eight novels, and it will be brought to the big screen in the film of the same name starring Angelina Jolie and Denzel Washington.
In conclusion, a small piece of advice: reality - fictional - is never as it seems. So never trust Jeffery Deaver. Always doubt. If, for example, he shows you his left hand, don't look at it. Never. Otherwise, don't cry if you're then struck full in the face with his right hand. Understood?
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