Book 3 in the Lincoln Rhymes series.
Lincoln, who is quadraplegic, is in North Carolina for a surgical procedure he hopes will restore some of his lost function to his hands. But the local sheriff comes asking his help to find a murderer and the two young women he grabbed.
Mary Beth McConnell is a college student studying archaeology and doing a little digging down by the river when she was taken by Garrett Hanlon, a sixteen-year-old kid with a reputation as a peeping tom and he is known for having an obsessive interest in insects. In the process of grabbing Mary Beth, Garrett killed Billy Stail, local high school boy, and is also being blamed for the death of a deputy who was injured investigating the murder site. Shortly after taking Mary Beth, Garrett grabbed another, young woman, Lydia Johansson, who had stopped by the murder site to place a sympathy bouquet of flowers.
Lincoln and his team agree to look into the matter and it turns out to be a real rat's nest of complications and betrayal and double dealing where almost no one can be trusted and everyone lies.
I enjoyed this story a lot. But there is a trend in modern stories where no one is telling the truth and no one can be trusted and everyone is double-dealing. It's a trend I really don't like. It's really annoying to find out the good guys are actually the bad guys. Most of the good guys in this story turn out to be the bad guys, and the bad guys are the good guys. I guess the message we are being given these days is that you can't trust anyone, the age of paranoia.
But even though I thoroughly dislike that trend, this was still a gripping and exciting story. However, I wasn't familiar with the Lincoln Rhyme character and even though I enjoyed the story, I doubt I will be reading another in this series.
Here is a review by Publishers Weekly.
