The Skin Collector

by Jeffery Deaver
434 pgs  (Lincoln Rhyme series #11)

Jeffery Deaver's latest installment in the Lincoln Rhyme series, The Skin Collector brings the series back full circle to the book that got it all started, The Bone Collector. Once again a serial killer threatens New York City. This killer uses poison to kill his victims, and administers the poison using a tattoo gun. As the number of victims increases, Rhyme and his team become aware of similarities between this case and the case involving the Bone Collector. This killer is fascinated with skin just as the Bone Collector was fascinated by bones. And it becomes apparent that the new killer has studied the articles Rhyme wrote on the original case and is using them to ensure that he eliminates all possible trace of himself from his crime scenes.

While Rhyme, Sachs, and the team are busy trying to anticipate their latest killer's next move, an old nemesis, the Watchmaker, dies while in prison. Lincoln's concentration is divided between capturing the tattooist and finally putting to rest the crimes of the Watchmaker, the only man Lincoln ever went up against whom he considered his intellectual equal, if not superior.

Some of the more recent books in this series have spent a lot of time and energy on advancing the relationship between Rhyme and Sachs and on Rhyme's struggle over whether to undergo risky surgery in order to restore some of the mobility he lost when he became a quadriplegic. No time is spent on either of those in The Skin Collector, this one is all about the killings. For that reason, I think I enjoyed this one a little more than I have the more recent ones. The Skin Collector is a great example of what makes this series so enjoyable.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆