The Skin Collector
Jeffery Deaver’s Lincoln Rhyme series has been a favorite of mine since the BONE COLLECTOR. And now he’s back with another collector, this time the SKIN COLLECTOR, seemingly about a tattoo artist who poisons people.
When Deaver includes a seemingly innocuous scene about the Watchmaker‘s funeral, you should pay particular attention. Lincoln sends his worthy enemy flowers, but of course he doesn’t trust him, so he sends Ron Pulaski to see who shows up. The Watchmaker’s lawyer does, and he files a harassment complaint. This plot thread then disappears, so you should smell a rat.
The main plot involves a tattooist named Billy Haven who seems to be sending Lincoln and crew a message. His first victim’s stomach is etched with the words “the second”. There’s no evidence of rape or any other motive involved. When Lincoln discovers a book with a chapter on the Bone Collector, mentioning Lincoln himself, he naturally assumes he’s dealing with a serial killer. Like John Sanford, Deaver gives us occasional glimpses of Haven’s machinations; hence we know his name. He also hints at what’s to come.
This is a masterful book in respect to what Lincoln, Sachs and the others can do with trace evidence. For instance they find bits of marble which lead them to a hospital addition, just in time to foil another murder. But the killer gets away and kills again, and we are given several other numbers for Lincoln to figure out.
We also learn lots of arcane information about the art of tattooing and what it means to various people who get them, thanks to two “experts” Lincoln brings in to discuss what’s going on. This guy is good, they say; he does things in minutes that would take others at least an hour.
Meanwhile the killer tattooist makes several attempts on the lives of the team, Rhyme and Sachs included. We know this won’t work, but Lon Sellitto does take a hit. There's also a sub plot involving Sachs' foster daughter Pam that also means more than it seems at first.
Okay, my gripe with this book is that it’s overcooked. Nothing is as it seems. All of a sudden we get one of Deaver’s patented wild twists, and we’ve got an entirely different plot, and then it changes again. At the end Lincoln is reveling in some new trace evidence he’s found, involving the last of the twists. In other words, what we have here is a cliffhanger. I personally despise cliffhangers; if this wasn’t the Rhyme series, I wouldn’t read the next book.
When Deaver includes a seemingly innocuous scene about the Watchmaker‘s funeral, you should pay particular attention. Lincoln sends his worthy enemy flowers, but of course he doesn’t trust him, so he sends Ron Pulaski to see who shows up. The Watchmaker’s lawyer does, and he files a harassment complaint. This plot thread then disappears, so you should smell a rat.
The main plot involves a tattooist named Billy Haven who seems to be sending Lincoln and crew a message. His first victim’s stomach is etched with the words “the second”. There’s no evidence of rape or any other motive involved. When Lincoln discovers a book with a chapter on the Bone Collector, mentioning Lincoln himself, he naturally assumes he’s dealing with a serial killer. Like John Sanford, Deaver gives us occasional glimpses of Haven’s machinations; hence we know his name. He also hints at what’s to come.
This is a masterful book in respect to what Lincoln, Sachs and the others can do with trace evidence. For instance they find bits of marble which lead them to a hospital addition, just in time to foil another murder. But the killer gets away and kills again, and we are given several other numbers for Lincoln to figure out.
We also learn lots of arcane information about the art of tattooing and what it means to various people who get them, thanks to two “experts” Lincoln brings in to discuss what’s going on. This guy is good, they say; he does things in minutes that would take others at least an hour.
Meanwhile the killer tattooist makes several attempts on the lives of the team, Rhyme and Sachs included. We know this won’t work, but Lon Sellitto does take a hit. There's also a sub plot involving Sachs' foster daughter Pam that also means more than it seems at first.
Okay, my gripe with this book is that it’s overcooked. Nothing is as it seems. All of a sudden we get one of Deaver’s patented wild twists, and we’ve got an entirely different plot, and then it changes again. At the end Lincoln is reveling in some new trace evidence he’s found, involving the last of the twists. In other words, what we have here is a cliffhanger. I personally despise cliffhangers; if this wasn’t the Rhyme series, I wouldn’t read the next book.
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