The Coffin Dancer

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The Coffin Dancer is a 1998 novel by Jeffery Deaver. The book features his regular character Lincoln Rhyme, a quadriplegic detective.

[edit] Plot

Detective Lincoln Rhyme, 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. Rhyme, a quadriplegic since a line-of-duty accident, uses 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.

[edit] Detailed Summary

The Coffin Dancer starts to eliminate two witnesses, then almost kills the third one. In the end, the third witness is in a safe house along with one of the Coffin Dancer's accomplices. It turns out that the accomplice was the real coffin dancer, who then kills all the safe house guards. Amelia Sachs receives a phone call from Lincoln saying that they just found out that Jodie the accomplice was the coffin dancer. Amelia and the last witness run outside where Amelia shoots into a bush where the Coffin Dancer was hiding with a sniper rifle. And the Coffin Dancer is captured. Rhyme interrogates him, interested to find out more about this person who has caused Rhyme so much grief.

In the end it turns out that the Coffin Dancer was not hired by Phillip Hansen but instead by an executive of the witnesses' company so that when they die he may buy their shares.