The Coffin Dancer [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Jeffery Deaver (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1999

Detective Lincoln Rhyme, the foremost criminalist in the NYPD, is on the hunt for an elusive murderer, the Coffin Dancer. He's a brilliant hit man who changes his appearance even faster than he adds to his trail of victims, only one of whom has lived long enough to offer a clue: the assassin has an eerie tattoo on his arm of the Grim Reaper waltzing with a woman in front of a casket.

Rhyme, tragically paralyzed from a line-of-duty accident, continues to tutor his beautiful protege, Detective Amelia Sachs, in the art of criminal hunting. Rhyme's suspicion of an earlier encounter with this killer fuels his bitter taste for vengeance. When the chameleonlike assassin targets three federal witnesses for death, the stakes reach a new high. Rhyme's brainpower and Sachs' legwork are the only tools they have to track the cunning murderer through the subways, parks, and airports of a darkly painted New York City. They have 48 hours to keep the witnesses alive before a grand jury convenes.

With The Coffin Dancer, Deaver uses his trademark plot twists to keep this fast-paced, masterly thriller steamrolling along with breathtaking speed.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This return engagement for quadriplegic criminologist Lincoln Rhyme is strong on forensic details as Rhyme tracks an elusive assassin known only by the tattoo that gives this fast-paced thriller its title.

Three witnesses to a murder could put a millionaire arms dealer behind bars for good. When one of them, the co-owner of Hudson Air, is blown up in a plane bombing with the Dancer's fingerprints all over it, the FBI takes the other witnesses into protective custody. Only Rhyme can decipher a crime scene, read the residue of a bombing, or identify a handful of dirt well enough to keep up with the killer. Helped by Amelia Sachs, his brilliant and able-bodied assistant, Rhyme traces the Dancer through Manhattan streets, airports, and subways. The psychological tension builds rapidly from page one all the way to the stunning and unexpected denouement. At the same time, Jeffery Deaver slowly develops the against-all-odds love affair between Rhyme and Sachs. Fans of Patricia Cornwell and others in the growing subgenre of forensic thrillers will find a lot to enjoy in Deaver's latest. --Jane Adams --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Deaver has come a long way since his Rune novels (Manhattan Is My Beat; Death of a Blue Movie Star), and the measure of his growth as a writer is on display in this taut sequel to the bestselling The Bone Collector, starring quadriplegic forensic specialist Lincoln Rhyme. Rhyme is called in to track down a contract killer, known as the Coffin Dancer, who has been hired to eliminate three witnesses in the upcoming federal trial of Philip Hansen. The trial is set to begin just 48 hours from the novel's (literally) explosive beginning. Rhyme and his beautiful assistant, detective Amelia Sachs, have just that much time to ID the Dancer and keep him from murdering the remaining witnesses. Yet Rhyme has personal reasons to track the Dancer, which come out in just one of the revelations and reversals that punctuate this thriller like a string of firecrackers. 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. Literary Guild main selection; Doubleday Book Club featured alternate; Reader's Digest Condensed Book Club.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 530 pages
• Publisher: Wheeler Publishing (January 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568956983
• ISBN-13: 978-1568956985
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (234 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,195,540 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jeffery Deaver was born outside of Chicago in 1950. His father was an advertising copywriter and his mother was a homemaker. He has one younger sister who writes novels for teenagers ' Julie Reece Deaver.

Deaver wrote his first book ' which consisted of two entire chapters ' when he was eleven, and he's been writing ever since. An award-winning poet and journalist, he has also written and performed his own songs around the country. After receiving a Bachelor of Journalism degree from the University of Missouri, Deaver worked as a magazine writer, then, to gain the background needed to become a legal correspondent for The New York Times or Wall Street Journal, he enrolled at Fordham Law School. After graduation he decided to practice law for a time and worked for several years as an attorney for a large Wall Street firm. It was during his long commute to and from the office that he began writing the type of fiction he enjoyed reading: suspense novels. In 1990 he started to write full time.

The author of twenty-two novels, Deaver has been nominated for six Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America, an Anthony award, a Gumshoe Award, and is a three-time recipient of the Ellery Queen Reader's Award for Best Short Story of the Year. In 2001, he won the W.H. Smith Thumping Good Read Award for his Lincoln Rhyme novel The Empty Chair. In 2004, he was awarded the Crime Writers Association of Great Britain's Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award for Garden Of Beasts and the Short Story Dagger for "The Weekender." Translated into 35 languages, his novels have appeared on a number of bestseller lists around the world, including the New York Times, the London Times and the Los Angeles Times. The Bone Collector was a feature release from Universal Pictures, starring Denzel Washington as Lincoln Rhyme. A Maiden's Grave was made into an HBO film retitled Dead Silence, starring James Garner and Marlee Matlin.

Jeff has also released two collections of his short stories, called Twisted and More Twisted.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mr. Deaver is the Master of Suspense!, January 10, 2000

By 

Karen Bierman Hirsh (Greenwich, CT) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Coffin Dancer (A Lincoln Rhyme Novel) (Mass Market Paperback)

And he certainly proves it with The Coffin Dancer, a follow up to his immensely popular book The Bone Collector.

Rarely is one really affected by characters in a book but Lincoln and Amelia are different as is The Coffin Dancer. Expect the unexpected and enjoy the plot twists and turns because rarely do you find thriller that is so well written and so absorbing.

Jeffery Deaver is creative and unique with his plot, the situations he creates for Ameila and Lincoln are realistic and highly intense. I was on the edge of my seat through out the book.

Plus- this is one ending that will blow you away. can't wait for the next installment featuring Lincoln and Amelia.

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic "page-turner", June 9, 2000

By 

M. Desoer (Bay Area, California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Coffin Dancer (A Lincoln Rhyme Novel) (Mass Market Paperback)

This book gets 5 stars for being one of the most suspenseful page-turners in a long time; in my opinion far superior to "The Bone Collector."

"The Coffin Dancer" is the second novel featuring Lincoln Rhyme and his new assistant, Amelia Sachs, as well as several other characters that you will recognize from the Bone Collector.

As with The Bone Collector, time is a critical factor in the resolution of this case . . . a couple of potential victims of a hired killer (the so-called Coffin Dancer) must be sheltered over a week-end so they can testify at a grand jury hearing on Monday. The Coffin Dancer is known for his creativity, adaptability and persistence (you cannot change your mind once you have hired him).

The book's rapid pace, pulls you into the frenzy so that you feel like you are there, watching Lincoln and Amelia work toward their goal. As with the previous Lincoln Rhyme book, Deaver includes meticulous detail concerning forensics, primarily the recovery and analysis of trace evidence; I'm not a scientist, and cannot evaluate the accuracy of these descriptions, but they are fascinating. In addition, the ending caught me totally by surprise.

I ended up reading this book in almost one sitting . . . until late in the night, something I don't often do. A great Summer read.

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you don't like this one, NEVER read again!, June 14, 2000

By 

"pnp2000" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Coffin Dancer (A Lincoln Rhyme Novel) (Mass Market Paperback)

I started this book a Monday morning right before I started working and couldn't put it down again till two days later when I finished it during lunch hour. This book is unbelievable. The afternoon I finished reading it I ran to every bookstore in town trying to find more Deaver books, its just unbelievable.

Anybody who tells you that this book is predictable is simply lying. Everytime that I thought I knew what was going to happen I was astonishingly not wrong, but dead wrong. There are plot twists in every corner.

Deaver's characters are intense. You feel the pain, the emotion, the enthusiasm, and the fear that the characters feel, and his villain in this book is so well thought out that it should rank up there in the all time great villains list. This is definitely a page turner, (And believe me I can talk because I was almost fired for reading at work). If you dont have enough time for nonstop reading don't read this one, at least not until the weekend.

Lincoln Rhyme and Sachs are simply wonderful characters who I enjoyed in the big screen but have found even more enjoyable in this novel.

Definitely, BUY BUY BUY and READ READ READ I'm sure you'll thank me later.