We don’t often see Lincoln traveling outside the country, but The Burial Hour is set largely in Italy. I’ve been writing about these characters ever since. So I tried writing another book and while I was in the middle of it, Universal Pictures called and said that Denzel Washington wanted to play Lincoln. But his disability actually enhances his ability to be a detective and a forensic scientist, and independent of his disability, he’s a really fascinating character. I thought I’d make him a paraplegic, but then I thought “no, I’m going to go all the way,” and make him as disabled as I possibly could - which is why Lincoln is a quadriplegic. At first I thought, maybe I’ll have him tied up, but that’s such a cliche. Someone who couldn’t just pull out a gun, but had to use their intellect to save the day and catch the bad guy. I wanted a hero who by definition had to outthink the villain. All due respect to people like Tom Cruise and Bruce Willis, but I was tired of the traditional hero.

When I first came up with the idea for The Bone Collector, I basically wanted to write an anti-action thriller. Did you ever think you’d still be writing about Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs two decades later? It has been 20 years since The Bone Collector was published in 1997. The brilliant forensic detective was played by Denzel Washington in the Bone Collector movie, which co-starred a young Angelina Jolie as his dutiful partner (in both senses of the word) Amelia, for whom marriage is finally on the horizon.Ī former journalist whose knack for diligent research certainly shows in his richly-textured novels, Deaver is one of the most acclaimed writers of thrillers and mysteries in the world, and his global popularity helped get him commissioned by Ian Fleming Publications to write the 2011 James Bond book Carte Blanche.ĭeaver, who resides primarily in Chapel Hill, N.C., recently took a break from writing to speak to the Tracking Board about his deepest fears (including a stalker!), his advice for aspiring novelists, the difference between American and Italian law enforcement, and which Oscar winner he’d like to see play Lincoln Rhyme next, should the character ever return to the screen. The Burial Hour is the 12th entry in the Rhyme franchise - excluding a 2013 short story that was released as a Kindle Single - and is notable for moving the action overseas, seeing as how Lincoln doesn’t travel often due to his condition. The Bone Collector author Jeffery Deaver’s latest Lincoln Rhyme novel The Burial Hour hits bookstores on Tuesday timed to the 20th anniversary of the bestselling series, and this gruesome tale takes everyone’s favorite quadriplegic criminologist to Italy as he tracks a killer known as The Composer.

The bone collector novel