I am just done with this nonsensical series.

It has just gone down the tubes for me since #11 (The Skin Collector).

That is three books in a row where not much is happening and too many coincidences drive the plot. Deaver doesn't even bother with trying to artfully explain the science in these books anymore. We just get regurgitation of facts and Rhyme acting like an asshole to everyone.

It doesn't help Rhyme and Sachs read like robots in this book. There is no there for me anymore between these two. Deaver wrote himself into a hole with getting rid of Sachs having issues with her arthritis.

Matters not helped by Deaver trying to turn these two into a super forensic spy team at the end. I don't even want to go there in future books. Let's pretend that the things they will end up doing will totally be legal and be allowed to be used as evidence. 

The writing was not good and the flow was awful. I think that a good 1/3 of this book could have been deleted and you would not have missed anything vitally important. Why oh why Deaver did not just end on Rhyme and Sachs getting married baffles me. We go from what could have been a sweet/strong ending to the two of them solving another crime. I could not believe it. It just went on and on and I didn't care. I can see why so many readers started to skim this. It's your only defense to not fall totally asleep.

The setting of this book is moved from New York (after the first couple of pages) to Italy. The only thing you have to know about Italy is that Rhyme likes the grappa. Also he is still an asshole to everyone. We get a plethora of new characters that I stopped keeping track of after a while. Why we spent so much time in these people's heads is beyond me. I started calling one of the Italians the new rookie cause that's who he was the stand in for IMHO.

The ending as I already said just died on the vine. We go from a happy event to another crime with Rhyme and Sachs thinking a murder is about to occur. Cue new characters and a murderous lesbian and I just was done. 

Fin. 

I have never been so bored in my life. Also I am not even going to pretend I like Rhyme anymore. Genius doesn't equal it's okay to be an asshole. Why do authors write men like this?

Ugh. I think this will be my last read for this series. 

This taking place in Naples isn't helping matters any either right now. 

Well we have Rhyme and Sachs about to marry and Rhyme being the most unromantic guy ever. So far seems to be a kidnapping case. Will see how it goes. The last book didn't do a thing for me.

Honestly Jeffrey Deaver is better than this book. He didn't follow up on events from the last one, he had Sachs and Rhyme at odds for "tension" and introduced one new character and someone we heard about just to make us readers think could Sachs and Rhyme be done. It was eyeroll inducing because it wasn't even believable. And to start off with Rhyme feeling guilty about a case so much he is done working for the NYPD wasn't to be believed. This book felt light on evidence and also Rhyme may need a body guard due to the constant criminals breaking into his home to off him.

The 12th book in the Lincoln Rhyme series rivals "The Empty Chair" for my least favorite at this point. Maybe because none of the characters were shown well in this one. 

The book starts off with Amelia Sachs being very angry, we don't find out why for a while, but when we do, we find it's because Lincoln Rhyme has decided that he will no longer consult on NYPD cases and he's going to go off and teach. Now it takes a long winding road to get there, but we find out on the last case that Rhyme worked on somebody who appeared to be innocent ended up going to jail for a case that he was working on. I don't know, I just didn't find it believable that Rhyme, who has been an a******* throughout this whole series decides he's just not going to do cases anymore. And don't even get me started on the fact that we just ignore how something that Rhyme did previously in this past (The Bone Collector) ended up affecting his present. Deaver doesn't even call that back to why Rhyme may be gun shy.

So Sachs is looking for an unsub who is suspected of a couple of violent crimes. That all gets thrown into the wind when a man on escalator gets trapped and killed due to the machinery malfunctioning.

So Sachs leaves that case to Rhyme with him pulling in one of his student's to assist. Cue tension, this student is smart, attractive, and also in a wheelchair. Cue plot point you start to have Rhyme thinking of her. I don't know, I think Deaver's thinks that we're too stupid to realize that these characters that we get introduced to in this book are red herrings. At no point was I concerned that Rhyme is going to fall in love with his student because they have a similar disability. Nor was it a concern when Sach's ex-boyfriend Nick finally gets out of jail coming to her to plead his innocent.

There were at least three, possibly four distinct plots in this one and none of them hung together very well. And then when things somehow loop together it was just a joke.

I feel like if Deaver really wanted to touch upon Sach's and her relationship with her ex maybe that would have made for a good short story. I just really don't buy that all the stuff that was going on. And per usual Deaver just pulls out of his butt something to just hinder Sach's in her career. I don't know just made me roll my eyes it was really dumb it didn't make any sense and just kind of just happens.

We get the usual suspects in this one Pulaski, Lon, and also our favorite FBI agent Delray.

I was happy though to see some call back to what Lon went through in the last book but other than that there's very little continuity besides a couple references here and there that you might not realize unless you're a longtime reader.

The setting in this New York feels artificial and sterile at times. I don't know, I  just really miss Deaver who used to go into the history of a thing, a city, a street, a chemical, etc. and it was very light on the foresnics in this one.

Even the criminal in this this one wasn't that very interesting and I was bored by all sections of the book that delved into his point of view. He just felt unnecessary considering everything else that was going on.

So in the book and we're giving I think what Deaver considers a startling revelation about a new change in Sach's and Rhyme's relationship. I just felt very annoyed and just cheated because I definitely think we should have gotten that scene and not heard about it told to us via them telling it to a third character.

I have to say that at this point Jeffery Deaver has become super repetitive. This entire book should have just been called misdirection because that's all that was going on. There are no new insights into Sachs or Rhyme, the overall mystery was pretty much ignored for some angsty crap that I as a reader didn't find believable, and everything is wrapped up a little bit too neatly for it to even have any type of repercussion to the series.

Readers are also provided information on something that should have been a great moment for a long time readers who have fallen in love with Rhyme and Sachs but even that was taken away from us.

I don't know what Deavers deal is when it comes to actually showing romance with his main characters but he's terrible at it. I do hope the next book in the series gets back to some of the other books that I really loved that were more focused on the procedural things that I found exciting.

But I think once again we just have some nonsense with random things happening with jobs and people quitting and not quitting and it's just a very frustrating read.