What We’re Reading

The Bone Collector | Jeffery Deaver

Some years ago I saw the movie with Julia Roberts and Morgan Freeman. It doesn’t hold a candle to the book, which is not for the faint of heart.  Deaver introduces Lincoln Rhyme - former head of NYPD’s elite forensics team, now a quadriplegic as a result of an accident; and Amelia Sachs, a patrolwoman who happens upon a gruesome crime scene and demonstrates all the right instincts to secure it and preserve evidence.  Sachs is unwillingly teamed with Rhyme by special request to stop a serial murderer.

The back story is Rhyme’s desire to die. His brilliant mind trapped in a paralyzed body - with motion only in his head, neck and left ring finger. The goal of his colleagues is to convince him that the life of the mind only is still worth living, his mental acuity still being greater that that of anyone around him. Should he be allowed to end his life with the aid of the Lethe Society?  This is the first book in a popular series, so we can assume that he continues to find reason to live.