The Bone Collector (original 1997; edition 1997)

Once upon a time, during my undergrad, I did a module on crime fiction. It was fascinating stuff, but I had major problems with the lecturer. One problem was that when I sent in an anonymous suggestion that she warn students of the level of sexual violence in one of the books, she responded that students shouldn't be such "fragile little flowers", and should have expected it on a course about crime. I constantly regret not standing up and pointing out to her that I am not weak for wanting a warning before I read stuff like that -- I am, after all, someone who has been sexually assaulted -- and that "crime" does not and should not automatically mean "rape and torture". In all the other books we read for the course, it just meant murder. Anyway, that took my breath away, but the following week was even worse.

She told us that she was thinking about adding new books to the course, and asked for suggestions. This, as near as I can get it with an imperfect memory, is what she said: "Should I add more feminist crime novels? More female detectives? Gay and lesbian detectives? A black detective? A dog detective? A disabled detective -- no, that would be really scraping the barrel."

I am extremely tempted to package this book up and mail it to her with the words "Scraping the barrel?", except that they won't stick in her mind as they did in mine and doubtless in the minds of other disability-knowledgeable people.

This is a pretty smart book. It deals with the issues of its disabled protagonist without making him a superman. It deals with the reactions to him honestly. It deals with the idea of euthanasia and the protagonist's desire to go through with that -- and other people's reactions to that. It doesn't, so far as I could see, fetishise disability (there were one or two points where I went, "uh, y'what?", but they were minor quibbles) or diminish it. We get the details of Lincoln Rhyme's bodily needs in the same way as we get crime scene info.

It is a bit graphic in some places, but there's a sort of clinical tone that carried me through it, unlike in Val McDermid's work. As far as I can remember, thinking back through it, there isn't much sexual content, at least.

The thriller aspect, for me, took a backseat to my curiosity about Rhyme, the way he thought and felt, the way he dealt with the situation. I didn't work things out ahead of Rhyme, and I'm not sure you're meant to, though this isn't to make you feel stupid -- Sachs and the other people assisting Rhyme are also intelligent and sharp, just not in the same way. I think if you know the ending or have a mind like Rhyme's you could keep following the evidence, but I stuck to the human interactions...

In any case, I enjoyed reading it, and while I'm sure that there are quibbles to be had with the portrayal of disability, I thought it was a solid effort. And I think I will send an email to the lecturer I had for that module with some more feedback... ( )

Great book. Anyone who enjoyed the movie must read this book! Much better than the movie. Much more detail, and the plot is slightly different. Great read. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series. ( )

From my blog

This is an action packed thriller with many edge of your seat moments, that takes place in Manhattan. I did like the idea of using an ex detective and criminologist because of his skills, experience and overall talent. When Rhyme meets Amelia Sachs, you feel the immediate energy and it was a mysterious working relationship energy throughout the book.

Having a serial killer leaving clues behind for the detectives to figure out where the next victim was hidden were my favourite parts of the book. He was also inspired from a book which in the end became a great clue. This is truly a talent for detectives to have. The forensic details reminded me of the great Patricia Cornwell books.

I thought this may be a book that passes the test of time but it was slow at times and missed something even though it did have technology in it.

I also think the ending was brilliant, it really all came together with a wtf moment and gruesome violent killing, oh my. Some parts were over the top but I still enjoyed it and these parts were some of my favourite even if they were unbelievable.

I watched the movie when it came out years ago but only remember I enjoyed it. I am going to try and watch this weekend. I love Angelina Jolie so was able to see her while reading but I don't remember Denzel, shocking. ( )

The Bone Collector by Jeffery Deaver was an interesting book about a quadriplegic detective and an accidental colleague. This was a pretty good over all book but there were parts that I found boring and unnecessary.

The bone collector had amazing action scenes that outweighed the bad ones by a small margin. At a point I almost stopped reading it because the story could not keep my attention. A lot of parts were very boring. But when the Bone Collector captors people the books comes to life while Agents Sachs and Rhyme have to pinpoint this killer and have little amount of time to do it in.

Agent Sachs accidently stumbled across a man who was a victim of an unknown killer by train tracks. This gets her started on a huge crime scene and introduces her to Lincoln Rhyme a forensic scientist, detective, and quadriplegic. This duo, along with agents Steletto and Banks, have to piece together clues left at each scene by the Bone Collector. They have a small window to figure out the location of the victims and save them. All of this happens while they deal with emotional feelings toward each other. Sachs becomes quite attached to Rhyme and when see gets word that he is talking to a doctor about assisted suicide she begs him otherwise. Unexpected turns of events keep stumping the team but the brilliant mind of Rhyme helps them connect the clues. This book also has an ending you won’t see coming.

This book has semi chapters which switch scenarios constantly making it a little hard to follow what is happening and it leaves you on cliff hangers, which gets old after a while. What keeps me reading is the intense action and odd methods of torture and murder. The characters also all have an unseen side to them which is described in the book. If you want to find out yourself what this book really is about give it a read.
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The Bone Collector wasn’t the type of book I’d like to read. It was very difficult to follow, even in the first fifty pages of the book. It was too fast paced, there were moments with confusing messages, and in my opinion, there was a bit too much dialogue. As a strong reader who enjoys curling up with a good book, The Bone Collector disappointed me just a few pages in.
As far as I’m concerned, this sort of plot occurs frequently in books. Something terrible happens to either the guy or girl, and they get assigned to figure out what happened together. This has occurred in movies and books, and many love to watch/read this particular plot in some form. It seemed repetitive. Also, the perspective changed rapidly from one person to another. One second I would be reading in the perspective of Amelia Sachs then the next another person.
I dropped this book for the several reasons listed and explained, but the detail was amazing! I loved his descriptions the most. I could actually visualize the scene! He made it very clear and it was a scary, creepy, disgusting book. ( )