The Bone Collector

Loved this book! I'm not a huge crime reader but this is the best book in the genre that I've read so far.

3.5 stars. A good suspense thriller.

I'll admit to having seen the movie years ago. Since I have very little experience with Deaver's work, this seemed like a good place to help get reacquainted. As is almost always the case, the book had greater depth and nuance than the movie. Knowing how many books already exist in this series, I'm surprised. I wouldn't think these characters would have that sort of longevity. Certainly compelling for a single book. I can even imagine spinning them into a two or three book series. But knowing there are currently 14 books? I'm interested to see where things go from here.

The narration for this audiobook was a little challenging, in my opinion. It lacked the ability to differentiate characters in a meaningful way and the flow of the voicework was less dynamic than most of the books I've listed to over the last couple of years.

4.5

The Bone Collector, the first in a series featuring Lincoln Rhymes, we are introduced to probably one of the best criminalist minds that have ever been written about. Perhaps it's because the main character, Lincoln Rhymes, does not have the day to day trivialities that cloud up one's mind on a daily basis. Rhymes is a quadriplegic and can only move one finger. He is a former NYPD criminologist whose spine was severely injured while working a crime scene. Now he is confined to his townhouse apartment in Manhattan where, with the help of some state of the art electronics and equipment, he is still able to help the NYPD solve some gruesome crimes.

So glad I decided to read this as it's so much better than the film, which I also liked. Although I will always picture Lincoln Rhyme as Denzel Washington! :)

After reading the book, I re-watched the movie, and frankly the book really was better. More focused on the forensics of the cases... and their is just some kind of gratification when the puzzle is solved and NOT everyone dies. Consider that a spoiler or not, whatever, but I didn't agree with a lot of the major changes they made in the movie, specifically to Rhyme and Amelia. The personalities and character flaws exhibited in the book were completely given up for the movie. Yes, they were two broken people coming together to solve some heinous crimes, but the empathy for Rhyme in the movie was completely wrong, and Amelia... damn she was a much stronger character, both morally and physically. I wanted to weep for the butchery done to this story, I see why they never made a second.

Now as for the book, I don't know if I will continue this series. It was a difficult read, and I don't mean that it was hard to read, more so that it took me FOREVER to get into the story. In the beginning I needed more time focused on the baddy, and less time focused on Rhyme being a quadriplegic. It literally took me two weeks to read the first 15 chapters, and less than 3 days to finish the book. It really did pick up which is why the 3star review. We'll see.