Lincoln Rhyme Books In Order

Publication Order of Lincoln Rhyme Books

Publication Order of Lincoln Rhyme Short Stories/Novellas

Lincoln Rhyme is the name of a character in the successful novel series written by Bestselling author Jeffery Deaver. The series is a popular one, based on the mystery and crime genre and features the main characters Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs. Lincoln is a quadriplegic detective and Amelia is an honest police officer, who works for the NYPD. The duo together form the main lead pair in all of the eleven novels of the series. Jefferey Deaver says that, during the course of writing the series, he would constantly rotate between Lincoln Rhyme and other new series. The series starts from the first novel ‘The Bone Collector’, which was published in the year 1997 and the last novel of the series named, ‘The Skin Collector’ got published this year. The special feature of Jeffery Deaver’s novels is that they have tricky endings or sometimes multiple tricky endings. The characters that Jeffery introduced in his novel series are as follows:

LINCOLN RHYME: Lincoln rhyme is a forensic expert and a quadriplegic detective, who is the former head of the IRD department of the NYPD. He gets paralyzed in an accident when an oak beam falls over his body. This accident causes severe damages to his body, crushing his vertebrae. As a result, he is able to move only his ring finger and his shoulders up. He has to leave the post of head of IRD and gets very devastated with his miserable life. He even considers committing suicide on the advice of Dr. William Berger, who is the representative of Lethe Society, a pro-euthanasia group. At this point, his former partner Lon Sellito comes asking for help in a kidnapping case. He gets little hope from his life and thinks of giving it a second try. In later parts of the series, he is seen helping to solve cases efficiently and smartly in spite of being paralyzed.

LON SELLITTO: Lon Sellitto is a detective who works for the NYPD and specializes in homicide cases. He is assigned the case of a kidnapping and homicide in the first novel of the series that takes place at the airport. Being Lincoln Rhyme’s ex-partner, he is also assigned to persuade him to help with the kidnapping case. The twenty-year veteran somehow manages to accomplish this unenviable task and teams up with Lincoln for solving all the future cases as well.

AMELIA SACHS: Amelia is a police officer who works has patrolling duties. She is so good at her work that everyone appreciates her smart work. One morning, when Amelia is about to get transferred, she is assigned to a homicide case involving a bone collector. Lincoln Rhyme notices her work at the crime scene where she is able to find out the first victim. He asks her to join him and become his ‘eyes and legs’. Even though she is a bit reluctant initially, she accepts to help Lincoln in the Bone Collector case. She later falls in love with him and forms a formidable team. Amelia often displays signs anxiety by biting her nails and scratching her head. She is very fond of fast cars.

THOM: Thomas Perkins or Thom, as he is normally referred; is the caregiver of Rhyme. He is gay and often has a love – hate relationship with Lincoln. He has a sarcastic sense of humor, which is on par with Rhyme and the two respect each other mutually.

MEL COOPER: Mel Cooper is a forensic technician and works for Lincoln Rhyme in solving all the cases. He likes ballroom dancing.

FRED DELLRAY: Fred is an FBI agent who helps Lincoln in a number of cases. He is a tall guy and a staunch advocate of Rhyme.

The first novel of the series was named ‘The Bone Collector’ and was published in the year 1997. The novel introduces the main characters of the series and the protagonist, Lincoln Rhyme. The plot of the novel starts with two colleagues getting kidnapped by the Bone Collector outside an airport. Later, they are taken to an abandoned warehouse and one of them is buried alive by the Bone Collector. Amelia Sachs, a patrolling officer is appointed for studying the homicide case near train tracks. She finds a hand protruding near the tracks. All the flesh is removed and only the bones are left with a diamond ring in one of the finger bones. She digs the ground and finds him to be one of the colleagues who took the cab. Lincoln Rhyme is seen waiting for someone in his apartment with a paralyzed body. Lon Sellitto, his ex-partner visits him with the homicide case asking him to help with the case. He refuses to help them, citing his paralyzed body, but Sellitto tells him that they require his forensic expertise to solve the case. Lincoln tells Sellitto that he will look into the case. Teaming up with Amelia Sachs, he proceeds to find the bone collector and save the other hostage.

Later, it is revealed that Lincoln’s doctor, Colin Stanton is the Bone Collector. Colin uses Peter Taylor as the identity to commit homicides. Colin lost his family when a suspect criminal had gunned down everyone in his vicinity. Lincoln was the officer in charge at that time and Colin believed that because of Lincoln’s failure, he lost his family. So he decided to revenge his loss by paralyzing Lincoln in an accident. When he learnt that Lincoln is getting suicidal, he became the Bone Collector to make him busy with a case and come after him. He began killing people using the tactics of a former serial killer James Schneider. Colin Stanton took inspiration from Schneider’s crimes to take revenge from Lincoln Rhyme.

At the end, Colin shows his true identity in front of Lincoln and promises to slowly kill everybody that he cares about. But, Lincoln bites him on his neck and he bleeds to death. The novel received great appreciations from everyone. Jeffery Deaver was praised for his efforts and the success of the novel made him the number one author in the New York Times Bestselling Authors List. The novel was also made into a film of the same name, which was also a hit among the audiences. The film was released in the year 1999 and featured Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie as the main characters. The sequel to this novel was published in 1998 with the title ‘The Coffin Dancer’. The Coffin Dancer is a professional killer who is hired to kill three witnesses during their testimony. Detective Lincoln is asked to track down this cunning killer. He gathers information using his wit and traces down evidences from crime scenes to predict the dancer’s next move. The only information that Lincoln and his team are able to find out is that the serial killer has a tattoo on his arm of the Grim Reaper waltzing with a woman in front of a coffin. The Coffin Dancer had killed Rhyme’s technicians some years back and has succeeded in killing one of the witnesses this time.

The killer plays the game of cat and mouse with the NYPD and Lincoln Rhyme, but they are unable to nail him down. Many NYPD officers lose their lives saving the remaining witnesses. The Dancer is shown as a deceptive and intelligent professional killer. He is small and thin and it is revealed at the end of the novel that his real name is Jodie. The dancer has many unremarkable features and uses deception as a great tool for accomplishing his assignments. He has great confidence in his abilities and frequently terms his targets as ‘corpses’ even before killing them. He hires a man named Stephen Kall for assisting him in his crimes. Finally, Rhyme hunts him down through the help of his arms and legs, Amelia Sachs. The sequel was also a huge hit among the readers and this motivated Jeffery to complete a series of eleven novels. All of his novels are full of suspense and mystery, which is the reason why people love his writings. The Coffin Dancer is one such masterpiece!!