The Coffin Dancer - Jeffery Deaver

Written by Jeffery Deaver
Read by Jeff Harding
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Series: Lincoln Rhyme: Book 2
Length: 13 hrs and 31 mins
Publisher: 2016 Simon & Schuster

NYPD criminalist Lincoln Rhyme joins his brilliant protégé Amelia Sachs, in the hunt for the Coffin Dancer—an ingenious killer who changes his appearance even faster than he adds to his trail of victims. They have only one clue: the madman has a tattoo of the Grim Reaper waltzing with a woman in the front of a coffin. Rhyme must rely on his wits and intuition to track the elusive murderer through New York City—knowing they have only forty-eight hours before the Coffin Dancer strikes again.

The pace, energized by Deaver’s precise attention, never flags; and if the romantic angle is a little obvious (Rhyme’s seeming concern for one of the Dancer’s female targets sparks Amelia’s jealousy), Deaver manages to renovate many of the hoariest conventions of the ticking-clock-serial-murder subgenre. Another original renovation is his Nero Wolfe-ish Rhyme–a detective who lives the life of the mind by necessity, not choice, and who thinks of everything but can’t even pick up a phone without help. Trust Deaver’s superb plotting and brisk, no-nonsense prose to spin fresh gold from tired straw.

What I presume from reviews, Jeff Harding does little to enhance the story. His characters are more caricature, possibly trying for a 1940’s feel. The 5 hour abridged version has an excellent read by Joe Mantegna.