The Coffin Dancer / The Empty Chair / The Stone Monkey

Lincoln Rhyme #2-4

by Jeffery Deaver

A trio of novels from internationally bestselling suspense master and seven-time Edgar Award nominee Jeffery Deaver, featuring quadriplegic NYPD detective Lincoln Rhyme and his beautiful protÉgÉe, Detective Amelia Sachs (portrayed by Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie in the film The Bone Collector).

 

The Coffin Dancer

Lincoln Rhyme is on the hunt for an elusive murderer known only as the Coffin Dancer, a brilliant hitman who changes his appearance even faster than he adds to his trail of victims. Only one victim has ever lived long enough to offer a clue to the killer’s an eerie tattoo on his arm of the Grim Reaper waltzing with a woman in front of a casket. When the chameleonlike assassin targets three federal witnesses for death in forty-eight hours, Rhyme must use his protÉgÉe and partner, Detective Amelia Sachs, as his eyes, ears, and legs to track the cunning murderer through the subways, parks, and airports of New York City and stop him before he strikes again.

The Empty Chair

Desperate to improve his condition, Lincoln Rhyme travels to the University of North Carolina Medical Center for high-risk experimental surgery. When a local teen is murdered and two young women go missing in the sleepy Southern outpost of Tanner’s Corner, Rhyme and his partner, Amelia Sachs, are the town’s best chance to find the girls alive. The prime suspect is a strange teenaged truant known as the Insect Boy, so nicknamed for his disturbing obsession with bugs, and Rhyme agrees to find the boy while awaiting his operation. But even Rhyme can't anticipate that Sachs will disagree with his crime analysis, and that her vehemence will put her in the swampland, harboring the very suspect whom Rhyme considers a ruthless killer.

The Stone Monkey

Recruited to help the FBI and the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs, manage to track down a cargo ship headed for New York City carrying two dozen illegal Chinese immigrants, as well as the notorious human smuggler and killer known as "the Ghost." But when the Ghost's capture goes disastrously wrong, Lincoln and Amelia find themselves in a race to track him down before he can find and murder the two surviving families from the ship, who have vanished into the labyrinth of New York City's Chinese community. As Rhyme struggles to locate the families, aided by a quirky policeman from mainland China, Sachs finds herself forming a connection with one of the immigrants that may affect her relationship with her partner and lover.

1230 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

#1 international bestselling author of over thirty novels and three collections of short stories. His books are sold in 150 countries and translated into 25 languages. His first novel featuring Lincoln Rhyme, The Bone Collector, was made into a major motion picture starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie. He's received or been shortlisted for a number of awards around the world.

Reviews

[*TANYA* · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing series. I was immediately hooked from the very beginning.

[Joyce Peak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jeffery Deaver is a very good author. He excels at his characterizations of the people in his books. If I had to search the streets for a Lincoln Rhyme or an Amelia Sachs, I could find them.

[Japheth A.Y. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Breathtaking series!

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

These novels have wonderful plots and character development, and involve Deaver's usual twists. They are suspenseful and difficult to stop listening to. I deducted a star because this collection is ABRIDGED - and that fact was not reflected in the listing information when I borrowed from the library. I am a real stickler for reading/listening to unabridged novels - the way the author intended them to be taken in. But I couldn't find any of these books in audio format on their own in my library network. I've borrowed ebook versions so I can fill in the details but this is a pain since I then have to move between written and audio with no bookmarks to tell me where I am in each.
Borrower/buyer beware!

[Carol Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of Deaver's earlier works that I missed. It was great to read a mystery that seems resolved, only to find there is another chapter leading to another solution, and then another chapter. Loved it.

[Walter Herrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jeffery Deaver continues to tease and amaze like always.