The Cold Moon
On a freezing December night, with a full moon hovering in the black skies over New York City, two people are brutally murdered—their prolonged deaths marked by eerie calling-cards: moon-faced clocks ticking away the victims’ last minutes on earth. More murders are planned, and Rhyme and his team have only hours to stop the icy-cold, brilliant Watchmaker, whose obsession with time drives him to plan his carnage with the precision of a fine timepiece. While the cat-and-mouse search for the killer proceeds, Amelia Sachs must balance her efforts to catch the Watchmaker with her job as lead detective on the first homicide case of her own, in which she unearths shocking revelations from the past that threaten to undermine her very relationship with Lincoln Rhyme.
An unlikely ally appears on the scene in the form of California Bureau of Investigation special agent Kathryn Dance, one of the nation’s leading experts in interrogation and kinesics—body language. Despite Lincoln’s skepticism about witnesses, and her distrust of physical evidence, the two form a curious alliance in the heart-stopping quest to find the Watchmaker.
The rest of the team is present too—tech-minded Mel Cooper, dogged Lon Sellitto, hip Fred Dellray, and the newest addition: rookie Ron Pulaski.
Deaver’s lightning-fast prose keeps the two cases racing along in almost real time, with more plot twists and surprises than in any previous book of his, as we realize that the Watchmaker may not be simply a murderous lunatic, but a far more cunning villain than anyone could guess, and the most terrifying and mesmerizing bad guy to ever come from the mind of Jeffery Deaver.
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Jeffery Deaver
Long before The Bone Collector introduced the calculating brilliance of Lincoln Rhyme to readers around the world, Jeffery Deaver was already quietly assembling the tools of his trade: a fascination with psychology, a sharp legal mind, and a love of music that taught him how to pace a story like a song, with rising tension, sudden drops, and crescendos that leave you breathless.
Born outside Chicago in 1950, Deaver’s path to becoming one of the most inventive voices in modern crime fiction wasn’t linear. He studied journalism, practiced law, and even considered a career in folk music before finding his stride in fiction. That varied background seeps into his novels, where legal nuance, technical precision, and psychological complexity collide in plots that are always one twist ahead of the reader.
Lincoln Rhyme
In the Lincoln Rhyme series, the world of forensic investigation transforms into a high-stakes chessboard where every piece moves with calculated precision. At the heart of this gripping saga is Lincoln Rhyme, a brilliant forensic expert confined to a wheelchair, whose mind remains as sharp as ever despite physical limitations. His partnership with Amelia Sachs, a determined and intuitive detective, forms the beating core of stories that delve deep into the psychology of crime and the intricate dance between hunter and hunted.
Lincoln Rhyme consists of sixteen primary books, and includes four additional books that complement the series but are not considered mandatory reads and series is set to expand with the upcoming release of three more books. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
