The Burial Hour

February 20, 2017
The abduction of a business executive on Manhattan’s Upper East Side by a man calling himself the Composer kicks off Thriller Award–winner Deaver’s intriguing, if overly complicated, 13th novel featuring forensic expert Lincoln Rhyme (after 2016’s The Steel Kiss). A witness finds a small hangman’s noose at the scene, as well as a torn currency exchange receipt, which suggests to Rhyme that the man was intending to leave the country. When the Composer later kidnaps a traveler at a remote bus stop near Naples, Italy, he leaves a little noose hanging from the bus stop bench. Rhyme and his lover, Det. Amelia Sachs, fly to Naples, where they join forces with the Italian investigating team led by hard-nosed prosecutor Dante Spiro, who’s initially dismissive of Rhyme. Meanwhile, Charlotte McKenzie, a legal liaison with the U.S. State Department, needs Rhyme’s help with the case of an American college student in Naples who’s been arrested for sexual assault. Too many twists and unlikely connections may puzzle some readers. Agent: Deborah Schneider, Gelfman Schneider Literary Agents.

March 15, 2017
Lincoln Rhyme, the quadriplegic criminalist, calls New York City home. But occasionally he travels to other places. In The Kill Room (2013), he follows the trail of a killer to the Bahamas. Here, he's way outside his comfort zone: Naples, Italy, to be exact, where an unknown subject who nearly killed a man in New York has fled (and has, apparently, attacked another victim). When Rhyme and his partner, NYPD detective Amelia Sachs, turn up in Naples, they aren't exactly warmly received, especially by the prosecutor in charge of the case and the lead detective. But, as Rhyme and Sachs show just how good they are, they begin to win over their law-enforcement adversaries. Misdirection and plot twists abound, and the novel's theme (the European immigrant problem) feels, given recent events in American politics, timely and relevant. Another strong entry from the always-reliable Deaver.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

November 15, 2016

In the first back-to-back Lincoln Rhyme title since 2006 (Deaver has many irons in his fire), our hero investigates the kidnapping of a businessman on New York's Upper East Side. He's confounded when a similar kidnapping occurs in Italy. With a 100,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.