The Coffin Dancer

Wake up, Scarpetta fans — Lincoln Rhyme is here to blast you out of your stupor in The Coffin Dancer. Jeffery Deaver’s second crime thriller starring the handsome forensics genius in a wheelchair pits Rhyme — consulting for the NYPD — against the Coffin Dancer, a mysterious assassin known only by a tattoo of the Grim Reaper dancing with a woman in front of a coffin. The ruthless Dancer is systematically terminating grand jury witnesses in a stolen military arms case. With taut pacing and mind-bending techno-forensics, the bodies pile up and the action hurtles toward Rhyme’s 48-hour deadline. There’s one major misstep: the late-breaking revelation of the Dancer’s true identity, a hairpin plot turn that briefly breaks the spell. Oh, but what a spell it is. A-