Tag / Jeffery Deaver

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Book 43 (of 52) – The Stone Monkey

The Stone Monkey – Jeffery Deaver

When a ship carrying Chinese citizens looking to sneak into the United States explodes and sinks off the coast of Long Island, the few survivors try to stay a step ahead of the snakehead they paid to smuggle them across the ocean who is looking to tie up loose ends.  Working with the INS and the FBI, Lincoln and Amelia, working with an undercover Chinese officer who survived the sinking boat, try to find the surviving immigrants before the snakehead can, while also trying to locate him and bring him to justice.

The Stone Monkey, the fourth entry in the Lincoln Rhyme series by Jeffery Deaver, is the 12th of the (soon to be) 15 entries in the series.  Now that I am armed with a library card, I’m sure I will track down whichever ones I haven’t already purchased and have waiting on my Kindle.

 

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Book 16 (of 52) – The Cold Moon

The Cold Moon – Jeffery Deaver

The Cold Moon, the seventh entry in the Lincoln Rhyme saga from Jeffery Deaver, puts Rhyme on the trail of The Watchmaker, who seemingly is targeting random victims with vicious attacks while Sachs, leading her first investigation, stumbled upon potential dirty cops.  When the two cases come together, they both get wrapped up a little too neatly.  Can Rhyme and Sachs figure out what the Watchmaker is truly up to before he kills again?

I’ve now read 11 of the (soon to be) 15 entries in the series, though I am going about it in no particular order.  This entry also introduced the Kathryn Dance character, who has a small series of 4 novels dedicated to her as well.  I still have a few entries waiting on my Kindle, with a new book being published in November, so I will catch up on of these days.

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Book 22 (of 52) – The Blue Nowhere

The Blue Nowhere – Jeffery Deaver

When a hacker moves beyond the world of computers and starts killing people in the real world, the California State Police Computer Crimes Division tries to fight fire with fire, getting another hacker out of prison in exchange for his help in tracking down the killer.  When it turns out that the two hackers used to hack together, the hunt becomes personal.

The first thing to know when diving into The Blue Nowhere is that it was published in 2001 so a lot of the technological aspects are wildly outdated in 2020, with dialup access and floppy disks being the most egregious examples.  Other than that, Jeffery Deaver spins a tale that probably resonates more today, with large scale hacks and identity theft being somewhat commonplace.  I’m a little surprised that Deaver never revisited these characters, as he seems to have set things up for the team to be brought back together, but maybe he felt better bringing that computing knowledge into his existing series.

 

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Midseason Review – Fridays

old-tv-set1Our final look back at the new fall season gives us Friday’s amazing slate of shows.

7:00

The Blacklist – The seventh season for the show will deal with the repercussions from the end of season 6, which I haven’t completed as of yet.

I’m about ready to move on, whenever they are.

Hawaii Five-0 – The tenth season promises that someone, whoever took the mysterious bullet that ended last season, will be leaving the show.

The loss of Jorge Garcia has taken away a bit from the levity of the show, but I do enjoy seeing locations from my vacation to Hawaii last year.

9:00

Blue Bloods – Returning guests highlight the tenth season.

Sad to say, but this one has also kind of run it’s course.

In the spring, we can look forward to:

Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt For The Bone Collector – Based on the Jeffery Deaver of the same name, the show looks to create more a lasting impression than the Denzel Washington/Angelina Jolie film did.

by jim

The Decade In Books

The 2010s have drawn to a close and its time to take a look back at the previous decade. Today, we move on to books, specifically the 229 books I read between 2010 and 2019. This decade coincides completely with my starting the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge, which I have never really come close to completing.

2015 was my best year, with 31 books completed.  2010 was by far the worst year in terms of finished books, with only 7.  Over the course of 10 years, those 229 books totaled over 77,000 pages.


152 different authors contributed to the books I’ve read this decade, 35 of which I’ve read multiple times.  The ghost writer for Richard Castle leads the way and is the only author I read more than 10 offerings from over the last 10 years.  The most surprising entry is Erle Stanley Gardner, who passed away in 1970. Continue reading →

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2019: The Year In Books

As we wrap up 2019, it is time to take a look back at the 28 books I read over the past year, an increase of 6 books over last year.  Of those 28, 7 were non-fiction and, of the 21 novels, only 3 were tied to a TV show.  Only one of the books came out of my dwindling “to-read” drawer, 19 were e-books, and, for the first time, there was 1 audio book.  I read nearly 9,500 pages, my second highest total of all time.

Once again, a majority of the books I read this year were by authors I’ve never read before. The 15 authors that I read for the first this year were:

  • Bill Clinton
  • Charles Willeford
  • Nell Scovell
  • Ernest Cline
  • Katrin Schumann
  • Lindy West
  • Luke Jennings
  • Agatha Christie
  • W. P. Kinsella
  • Aziz Ansari
  • John Gregory Betancourt
  • Julie Gregory
  • Mindy Kaling
  • Anthony Stevens
  • Louis Strauss
  • Dean Wesley Smith
  • Kristine Kathryn Rusch
  • Nell Zink
  • Stephanie Wittels Wachs

Jeffery Deaver and Karin Slaughter were the only authors that I read multiple titles from during 2019.

5 of the books I read were released this year, while 5 of them were released last century, with the oldest first published in 1934.

Finally, the breakdown by month.  My vacation to Hawaii in February and being off in December certainly helped pad its totals a tad bit.

Continue reading →

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Book 26 (of 52) – The Burial Hour

The Burial Hour – Jeffery Deaver

The Burial Hour, one of the latest Lincoln Rhyme entries from Jeffery Deaver, puts Rhyme and Sachs on the trail of The Composer, who leads them to Naples, Italy, where they team up with local law enforcement to stop his crime spree.  Of course, once they untangle the case, Rhyme and Sachs take the opportunity to stop in Bellagio and get married.

This marks 9 out of 14 entries in Jefferey Deaver’s series that I’ve read.   I assume I’ll get to those remaining 5, or maybe even some of his other work, at some point.

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Prolific Authors 2019

Way back in December of 2011 (and again in the Decembers of 2013, 2015, and 2017), we took a look at the authors I have read the most, dating back to high school. Since our last check-in, I’ve read an additional 48 books from 50 different authors. There shouldn’t be much movement over the past 2 years, but it’s time to take another look and see if my “favorite” authors have changed much in that time span. Once again, we will be limiting ourselves to the now 70 authors from whom I have read more than one book.

 

Author Name Current Total 2017 Total Difference
Nancy Holder 16 15 1

Nancy Holder adds 1 new book over the past 2 years to maintain her lead.

Richard Castle 15 14 1

The writer (or writers) using the nom de plume of the main character from the television show Castle sees a slight increase, despite the show being off the air for well over 3 years now.

Stephen King 13 12 1
Greg Rucka 13 13 0
Christopher Golden 12 12 0
Brad Meltzer 12 11 1

Very little movement in the next tier the past 2 years.

Jeffery Deaver 11 8 3

We round out the double digits with Deaver, who will be going up again soon, as I’m currently reading one of his books. Continue reading →

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Book 8 (of 52) – The Cutting Edge

The Cutting Edge – Jeffery Deaver

The Cutting Edge, the latest Lincoln Rhyme entry from Jeffery Deaver, puts Rhyme and Sachs on the trail of The Promisor, who seems to hate people who use cut diamonds to show expressions of love.  Meanwhile, while Rhyme and Sachs look for the one living witness to the Promisor’s first attack, a string of earthquakes hit Manhattan, threatening a geo-thermal project.

Aside from the first entry of the series, which I read based on my interest in the movie, I’ve gotten the rest of the 8 entries that I’ve read either as remaindered books or as deals from the Kindle store.  So while I haven’t invested a whole lot of money in the series, I’ve certainly invested time in these characters and in Deaver himself.  There are still a few more of his works sitting in my Kindle library, so I’ll be spending more time with him and his work in the future.

by admin

Book 10 (of 52) – The Skin Collector

The Skin Collector – Jeffery Deaver

Jeffery Deaver is back with The Skin Collector, the 11th entry in the Lincoln Rhyme series.  A new killer is roaming the streets of New York, one who leaves tattooed clues on his victims and seems to have intimate knowledge of Rhyme’s methods and a connection to the first case Rhyme and Sachs worked together.

While this was the 11th book of the series, it is at least the seventh that I’ve read.  Deaver knows how to keep things interesting enough to keep you coming back for more.  There are a few more of his works waiting on my Kindle, so I’m sure to add to this total as the years go on.