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linusb's review against another edition
5.0
Wow. Very good book with more twists and turns than one would expect. Highly recommend it to anyone who likes a good mystery of any sort.
andyshute's review against another edition
3.0
Hmmm, not sure about this. There are good and bad points but I'm tainted from having read the follow up first. As such I spent most of the book wondering how a killer so inept became a 'nemesis' subsequently, forgetting of course Deaver's love of convoluted twists.
It starts off well and ends well but the middle drags somewhat and not much happens. The introduction of Kathryn Dance was interesting (I've not read any of her books to date) and she almost pushes Lincoln into a back seat position here. At the same point, I also found her a little irritating.
It comes down to a lack of character development across these books. The same players sound the same in each book, have the same discussions and personal interactions in each book and anything that upsets the balance is reset by the end (it would have been more interesting to leave the revelations about Sachs' father alone, adding more to her determination and devotion than giving her an out). There's an awful lot of repetition. By now we should know all the little quirks of Lincoln, Sacs, Lon etc, yet Deaver insists on writing them in every time.
Sometimes I don't mind this in long series. After all I'm a devoted Poirot fan and a Jack Reacher fan (most of the time). But here I find it numbing. I used to read the Alex Cross novels but gave up when I realised James Patterson was on auto pilot after the first handful. Here, Deaver seems content to just repeat himself though he does seem to put more thought into the plots.
But...I'm a sucker so will probably read some more in the series.
It starts off well and ends well but the middle drags somewhat and not much happens. The introduction of Kathryn Dance was interesting (I've not read any of her books to date) and she almost pushes Lincoln into a back seat position here. At the same point, I also found her a little irritating.
It comes down to a lack of character development across these books. The same players sound the same in each book, have the same discussions and personal interactions in each book and anything that upsets the balance is reset by the end (it would have been more interesting to leave the revelations about Sachs' father alone, adding more to her determination and devotion than giving her an out). There's an awful lot of repetition. By now we should know all the little quirks of Lincoln, Sacs, Lon etc, yet Deaver insists on writing them in every time.
Sometimes I don't mind this in long series. After all I'm a devoted Poirot fan and a Jack Reacher fan (most of the time). But here I find it numbing. I used to read the Alex Cross novels but gave up when I realised James Patterson was on auto pilot after the first handful. Here, Deaver seems content to just repeat himself though he does seem to put more thought into the plots.
But...I'm a sucker so will probably read some more in the series.
lizthescaredycat's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
It was okay. I wouldn’t say the best of the Lincoln Rhyme novels, but it was entertaining enough.
davesag's review against another edition
4.0
I think this one had one twist too many. But still fun to read if you like this strict police procedural genre fiction.
josilsac's review against another edition
4.0
This author has got one psychotic imagination - so many twists and turns.
My only criticism is that it all "wraps up" too easily.
My only criticism is that it all "wraps up" too easily.
martha_p's review against another edition
3.0
Jeffery Deaver is usually a hit or miss for me. I enjoy his writing style and his plot twists, but sometimes there are too many and it ends up being ridiculous. This book is one of them. Right when you were happily settled in one great direction...SURPRISE...another plot twist. And another. And another. It got to the point that I was getting frustrated and eager to be done with this story. It felt convoluted and much too long. I found myself skimming through sentences, paragraphs, pages and eventually entire chapters. I have a few books by him left to read sitting on my bookshelf but I think I'll take a break from the author until I'm up to trying again.
nileimaj's review against another edition
3.0
I picked up this third-hand, withdrawn library book because I was having trouble getting through another novel I was attempting, and wanted something quick and distracting. The friend who gave this to me said it was "pretty good, with lots of subplots within subplots" so I figured it would be entertaining.
The first 2/3 of this book was great. I found that I could easily pick it up and put it down again, but it was interesting. The last 1/3 of the book is where all the subplots crash into each other, and it's as if the author got tired of describing what was happening and decided to tell it like it was, one after the other. It was still interesting, but much less artfully so, and I started to get tired of how complex and underdeveloped it became.
The bad guy gets away, so you know he'll reappear in the next book, which I don't think I'll be reading. By the way, this is by the guy who wrote The Bone Collector (which I watched) and the plot is a bit like the movie The Usual Suspects. I think this book would translate into a pretty good movie.
I enjoyed the sections on kinesics and the cleverness of the bad guy.
The first 2/3 of this book was great. I found that I could easily pick it up and put it down again, but it was interesting. The last 1/3 of the book is where all the subplots crash into each other, and it's as if the author got tired of describing what was happening and decided to tell it like it was, one after the other. It was still interesting, but much less artfully so, and I started to get tired of how complex and underdeveloped it became.
The bad guy gets away, so you know he'll reappear in the next book, which I don't think I'll be reading. By the way, this is by the guy who wrote The Bone Collector (which I watched) and the plot is a bit like the movie The Usual Suspects. I think this book would translate into a pretty good movie.
I enjoyed the sections on kinesics and the cleverness of the bad guy.
dimitribelgium's review against another edition
3.0
A solid and reliable Rhyme novel with an above-average number of twists and turns, at an increasing pace. So you get to bask in the serial killer's blinding moonlight before the story runs away from you.
mwseashell39's review against another edition
4.0
I like the Lincoln Rhyme series because his character, as well as Amelia's, are so different and complex than most detective/crime novels. Adding Kathryn Dance to the story added a new dimension.