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The Coffin Dancer (1998)
Detective Lincoln Rhymes, the foremost criminalist in the NYPD, is put on the trail of the Coffin Dancer, a cunning professional killer who has continually eluded the police. Rhymes —-a quadriplegic since
a line-of-duty accident — must use his wits to track this brilliant killer who's been hired to eliminate three witnesses in the last hours before their grand jury testimony. Rhyme works with his eyes and
ears, New York City cop Amelia Sachs, to gather information from trace evidence at the crime scene to nail him, or at least to predict his next move and head him off.
So far, they have only one
clue: the assassin has a tattoo on his arm of the Grim Reaper waltzing with a woman in front of a coffin.
Reviews:
"Fair warning to newcomers: Author Deaver is just as cunning and
deceptive as his killer; don't assume he's run out of tricks until you've run out of pages." – Kirkus Reviews
"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." – Publishers Weekly
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