The focus of my blog is to review book series and not individual novels. But writers are going to continue writing novels within a series even after I have done my review, so I plan on reviewing the individual novels as they come into circulation.   Jeffery Deaver has recently added book #13, The Burial Hour to the Lincoln Rhyme series.

---

I can honestly say that Jeffery Deaver’s Lincoln Rhyme series is one of my favorite series mainly because I love the character Lincoln Rhyme. Rhyme is an unusual character in that he is a quadriplegic, but that hasn’t stopped him from being a world renowned forensic expert. What I really like about Rhyme is his rather crusty behavior and sarcastic humor, as well as his complete dedication to his profession, which is finding the ‘bad guy’. That dedication becomes very clear in the latest addition to the series, The Burial Hour, as Rhyme travels all the way to Italy to pursue a perpetrator that had eluded him back in the States. But the Italian law enforcement agencies don’t welcome his intrusion, and it takes Rhyme’s expertise to eventually win them over. Together they pursue a mental patient known as ‘The Composer’ who has an unusual MO of kidnapping his victims and attempting to slowly kill them through strangulation while recording their dying breaths to create the ultimate symphony of a twisted mind.

For those of you that love Lon Stilleto, Mel Cooper, and Fred Dellray, I am afraid to tell you that you won’t be seeing much of them. But, on the other hand, Deaver has created a fun character with Forestry Officer Ercole Benelli who gets his first opportunity to work a ‘real’ crime case. I hope The Burial Hour is not that last time to see Benelli.

One thing that is certain in a Jeffery Deaver thriller is that nothing is as it seems and this is particularly true of The Burial Hour as Deaver does an about face that I did not see coming. For this reason The Burial Hour is a must read. It becomes quite clear at the end of the novel that Deaver is considering a whole new direction for the series for which I am very much looking forward to.  

The Burial Hour is better than most as a standalone novel, though I would recommend reading The Bone Collector first to understand the Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs relationship.

To learn more about the series check out Jeffery Deaver’s Lincoln Rhyme series.