Rhyme and Company Tangle with Tattoos: Jeffery Deaver's "The Skin Collector"

The Skin Collector - Jeffery Deaver

Just when you thought it was safe to get some body art, Jeffery Deaver puts the fear of God in you. Could any other author dream up a killer so insidious, so calculating, so… evil as The Skin Collector? Probably not…

He prowls the tunnels and abandoned alleyways of New York’s underground, carrying with him the tools of his trade: Billy Haven, sometimes known as “The Underground Man,” does body modifications; although his recent clients neither requested a new tattoo nor survived their application. Perhaps that’s because Billy’s ink is pure poison – literally: hemlock, amanita, nicotine; all the “good” ones.

With a killer who can be anywhere, anytime, and who seemingly selects his victims at random; NYPD does what they always do: they call in Lincoln Rhyme. Unsub 11-5 proves a worthy adversary, however, perhaps because he has studied in detail the team assembled by the paraplegic forensic criminologist and their methodology. Or perhaps it’s because he has a plan; carefully constructed, highly detailed and chock full of surprises. Nasty surprises, not the least of which is… well, you’ll just have to find out, won’t you!

Veronica Mars Goes Literary - Sort of - For "The Thousand-Dollar Tan Line"

The Thousand-Dollar Tan Line - Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham

Unless you've been hiding under a rock, you know that Veronica Mars lives, thanks to a Kickstarter campaign to fund Kristen Bell’s return as a slightly older version of the sassy high schooler whose hobby is being a private eye. The diminutive blonde made it back to Neptune, California, for the movie – and stayed for the book. According to the cover blurb, The Thousand-Dollar Tan Line is “the first book in a thrilling new mystery series”!

Kristen Bell at San Diego Comicon, by Gage Skidmore

Your reviewer begs to differ: first in a series, yes; mystery, maybe; thrilling, decidedly an overstatement. Read on…

It’s March, and hordes of spring-breaking college students have descended on seaside Neptune, filling the motel rooms, jamming the bars and leaving the village streets littered with dead soldiers and pools of vomit. You know the drill… When one party girl disappears, however, national attention is focused on the annual three weeks of hedonism. Everyone in Neptune knows their elected sheriff is a corrupt buffoon, so the local Chamber of Commerce quietly turn to Mars Investigations – and right now, that’s Veronica.

Anna Pigeon Channels Ford, Butler and Willis to Become a "Destroyer Angel"

Destroyer Angel - Nevada Barr

Four years have mellowed Heath Jarrod, onetime ice climber turned paraplegic by a tragic fall. Some of that mellowing is definitely due to the influence of her adopted daughter, Elizabeth, whose presence in her life is a gift from Anna Pigeon. So it’s not unexpected that those two women and the fifteen-year-old would take a week for a long canoe trip off the grid in Minnesota. They’re joined by wealthy wunderkind engineer Leah Hendricks and her adolescent daughter, Katie. The first night in camp Anna heads for the river for some private time with her canoe, but when she returns, her companions are not alone: four men have invaded the campsite, and mayhem is on the menu. 

The four thugs are there to kidnap Leah and her daughter, intending to deliver them to an airstrip some ten miles away through the North Woods. The belief that Heath and Elizabeth can command a handsome ransom too means that they will come along; the trek complicated by the thugs’ lack of wilderness savvy and Heath’s condition… not to mention Anna. Informed that the fifth camper backed out at the last minute, the four men remain unaware that one small, middle-aged female Park Ranger is plotting their demise.