| The Bone Collector | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Jeffery Deaver |
| Country | US |
| Language | English |
| Series | Lincoln Rhyme |
| Genre(s) | Crime Fiction |
| Publisher | Viking |
| Publication date | 1997 |
| Published in English |
1997 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 461 (Paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 978-0-340-99272-2 |
| Followed by | The Coffin Dancer |
The Bone Collector is a 1997 novel by Jeffery Deaver. The book introduces the character of Lincoln Rhyme, a quadriplegic forensic criminalist.
Contents |
Lincoln Rhyme is one of the world's foremost forensic criminalists. And a quadriplegic. And planning suicide.
Then he gets a call he can't ignore. A single human hand has been found, belonging to a man who got in a cab at the airport and never got out. The driver was the Bone Collector, a ruthless kidnapper.
As the minutes count down to each new death, Rhyme must decipher the gruesome clues left by the killer at each scene.
Slowly the criminalist begins to tighten the noose. But it appears the Bone Collector has other plans.
The novel begins with two work colleagues catching a cab outside a New York City airport, unfortunately for T.J. Colfax and John they unknowingly climb into the Bone Collector's cab, after a brief ride through New York they find themselves in an abandoned warehouse district.
The next day Amelia Sachs is called to a possible homicide near some train tracks downtown, her initial search doesn't bring anything up until she spots, what she thinks is a dead tree protruding from the ground near the rail tracks. She climbs down the embankment instead of using the ladder so she doesn't mess up any evidence that could be on the ladder. As she gets closer to the "dead tree" she realises that it is actually a hand sticking out of the ground, with all the flesh removed and a large diamond ring placed on the bony finger. She digs down in the earth and uncovers the face of John, who has been buried alive.
Amelia calls in the find a begins to secure the area by stopping a train passing through and stopping the traffic up above.
Quadriplegic and ex-forensic criminalist Lincoln Rhyme is waiting for a visitor at his apartment, when the doorbell rang, however when his caregiver Thom came into his room, he told Rhyme that he had two unexpected visitors in the form of homicide detectives Lon Sellitto and Jerry Banks. Rhyme tells his aide that he doesn't want to see them but gets talked around to giving them a bit of his time
It turns out that Sellitto is Rhyme's ex-partner and that they worked well together. Sellitto and Banks are there to get Rhyme's help on the kidnapping and murder case, however is unwilling to help them, as he says he is in no fit state to help. When Sellitto says that all he wants is for Rhyme to look over the case file and give them insight into what it all means, Rhyme finds himself drawn into reading it, the detective explains to Rhyme that the kidnapper still has one hostage and they need to find her, at this point Rhyme's expected visitor arrives and he asks the detectives to leave lying to them and saying that he will read over the case notes
Lincoln Rhyme - is a quadriplegic forensic criminalist, who was the head of IRD before he was involved in an accident at a crime scene in a subway station, where an oak beam fell on him crushing his C4 vertebrae and leaving him only able to move from his shoulders up and his left ring finger. At the start of the novel Lincoln is considering suicide with the help of Dr. Berger, until his ex-partner Lon Sellitto arrives at his apartment asking for help on a kidnapping case.
Amelia Sachs - is 31 year old Police Officer, who is about to be transferred out of patrol, however on the morning of her transfer she is called to a possible homicide, where she finds the first victim of the Bone Collector. Her work at this crime scene catches the attention of Lincoln Rhyme and she reluctanlty becomes his "legs and eyes" as he takes on the case of the Bone Collector.
Lon Sellitto - is a Homicide Detective working for the NYPD, who has been assigned the kidnapping case from the airport. He is a twenty year veteran and the ex-partner of Lincoln Rhyme, he has also been given the unenviable task of getting Rhyme to work on the case.
In the book Lincoln Rhyme is a white man with dark hair in his forties, however in the film version he is black and played by Denzel Washington.
Amelia Sachs's name is changed to Amelia Donaghy and her hair colour is changed from red to brown.
Lincoln's aide Thom isn't in the film and is replaced by the character Thelma played by Queen Latifah, who is killed towards the end of the film by the Bone Collector.
In the book the Bone Collector never removes the bones of any of his victims like he does in the film.