Lincoln Rhyme : Hunt for the Bone Collector – TV show

This show started in Januaryt of this year on NBC. It airs on Friday night, and I watch the rerun on Hulu since I work Friday nights. The show is based on Jeffrey Deaver’s famous book: The Bone Collector, and it uses a lot of the elements from the book. I especially liked they showed how Rhyme ended up paralyzed in the very first episode.

The show stars Russell Hornsby as Lincoln Rhyme. I first saw him on Grimm where he played Detective Hank Griffin, the partner to the main character. In this show, he gets to play a stronger character – the main lead in a cast of leading actors. He portrays Rhyme a lot like Denzel Washington did in the movie, but he also gives him some humanity.

Amelia Sachs, his “eyes and ears” on the scenes, is played by Arielle Kebbel. I’ve seen her in a couple of horror movies. She was also in a television show called Midnight Texas that didn’t last long. I saw a couple of episodes of it, and I think they could’ve done much better with it…. In this show, she also gets to play a strong character, one with compassion and strength as well as a bit of a reckless streak.

The Bone Collector, aka Peter, is played by Brian F O’Bryne. I think I saw him in Million Dollar Baby, but I’m not sure. In this show, the Bone Collector is known to the viewer, and he’s married which is why I know his name is Peter. In the first episode, you also see how the Bone Collector knows Lincoln Rhyme. I like seeing both sides of this particular conflict.

Due to its very name, I’m not sure how long this show is going to last – planned obsolescence comes to mind. A great many shows, here and in the UK, are being designed to only last a few seasons. Maybe the next season will be based on another Deaver book featuring Rhyme. That would be nice.

The show has episodes mainly about other cases to solve with the Bone Collector being worked in the back ground so, something is always going on. Lots of interesting scenes including one where Sachs builds a thermite bomb in a matter of minutes with Lincoln’s help. I like learning more about New York and its environs – its history features heavily in all the books featuring Rhyme. Makes me want to go visit just to see some of what they’ve talked about, including some of the subway stations.

One of the things I didn’t like was the casting of his wife, Danielle. They used Claire Coffee, another former cast member on Grimm. She doesn’t get much onscreen time as the Bone Collector’s wife, but it doesn’t matter. I don’t think she’s got that much talent. Her facial expressions are pretty limited. If she sticks to playing romance parts where she gets to smile and flirt and whatever, she’ll be okay. Playing a villian or anything else that requires strong emotion, I don’t see her pulling it off.

Don’t take my word for it though, check out the show yourself!

See you on the flipside and don’t forget your towel and sonic screwdriver!!

Solitude Creek – Jeffrey Deaver

This book is a Kathryn Dancer novel, not a LIncoln Rhyme novel, but I liked it anyway. 🙂 My copy is a paperback published by Grand Central Publishing Copyright 2015. It’s roughtly 579 pages long plus a bit of a lead in to another book and the always present, Author page, every novel should have – if only so we have a picture of the author. 🙂

Agent Kathryn Dance works for the California Bureau of Investigation and lives in the area. She’s a widow with two children, boy and girl, and several dogs. She is friends of Lincoln Rhyme(might we see another pairing of this intelligent and determined duo?) and Amelia Sachs. She is also an expert in kinesics – the study of body language and how to read people. She uses it as one of her main interrogation techniques.

In this story, a man named Antioch March(he prefers Andy) is staging stampedes – for profit! Kathryn is sent as part of an undercover operation for another ongoing case dealing with gangs to the site of the initial stampede, and she decides she’s going to work this case too.

With two cases going and with two men she’s really into, you’d think her dance card would be full! Then, there’s the kids. Wes, her son, is hanging out with new friends and not quite telling her lies about what he’s doing with them. Maggie, her daughter and the younger of the two, is moody and a bit withdrawn – to the point of not wanting to since at her school’s talent show even though she’s a great singer!

Agent Dance manages all of this chaos in her life and doesn’t get shot once! A shocker to me too especially when her demotion means she can’t carry a weapon! Still, she does her job, on all fronts, superbly!

You have to read this book! I refuse to give away the ending or even tell you any of the really good parts – because I can! 🙂 As you all know, I’m a big advocate for doing things yourself: see the movie critics are panning, read the book everyone seems to hate, listen to the music everybody else scoffs at. Don’t be a lemming who just follows what everyone else is doing – you’ll miss out on a lot going over the cliff with the others.

So, see you on the flipside and don’t forget to bring your towel and sonic screwdriver! Who knows, we might run into some evil alien lemmings bent on throwing us off the cliff! 🙂

The Stone Monkey – Jeffery Deaver

Look Ma, it’s a book review! Yes, snarkiness is allowed on my blog. 🙂

I finally finished this book and now, I want to share my thoughts on it with you!

This book was published by Pocket Books which is a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. in 2002. It is dedicated to all the folks we Americans lost on Sept. 11, 2001.

This is one of the books featuring Lincoln Rhyme. Ever since the movie version of The Bone Collector, Denzel Washington is who I think of as Lincoln Rhyme. In his dialogue in the book, I hear Denzel’s voice. 🙂 It makes the book more interesting to me, I think.

Anyway, in this book, Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs are hunting down a snakehead, a Chinese man who smuggles humans to America. This particular guy has been named The Ghost and is wanted by authorities in China and Anerica, as well as a couple of other countries, for crimes ranging from human trafficking to murder. They are joined by faithful colleagues from the FBI, the local NYPD and two newcomers: Alan Coe of INS and Sonny Li, a Chinese policeman from Fuzhou, China who has followed The Ghost all the way from China to the US to arrest him for several deaths in his own backyard.

The book is rich with sights, sounds, feelings and thoughts which Jeffery Deaver excels at! he draws you into the book by building a three dimensional world out of just words. Words full of deliciousness such as how Dellray dresses and speaks, how Amelia Sachs drivers her sports car and how Lincoln Rhyme feels ghost pains in places that no longer have feeling.

You feel for the poor families being tracked by the Ghost, by the loss of the elderly grandfather of one of the families and loathe The Ghost as he thinks of what he wants to do, not only to the families but also the woman he call Yindao.

There are lots of twists and turns, misdirection and Chinese wisdom in this wonderful story, and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes criminal drama, Jeffery Deaver and/or Lincoln Rhyme.

I never give away too much of the plot or the ending so if you want to read the book based on what I have shared, fantastic! Let me know how you liked it, or didn’t. If you want to know more about the story before you actually read it, check out Jeffery Deaver’s official site: Jeffery Deaver-Official Site.

See you on the flipside my friends and don’t forget your towel and sonic screwdriver!! The spice must flow!!