The Burial Hour by Jeffery Deaver

The Burial Hour by Jeffery Deaver

Review of the novel The Burial Hour by Jeffery Deaver

Published by Hodder & Stoughton in April 2017

Cost: £7.99 (UK Paperback)

ISBN: 978-1-473-61864-0 (Paperback Edition - 476 pages - starts on page 3 – small font)

Dedication: To the memory of my friend Giorgio Faletti. The world misses you.

I’m a great fan of Jeffery Deaver, and particularly the Lincoln Rhyme series of which this is number thirteen. Number fourteen in the series, Cutting Edge, is out in the UK on 17 May 2018 in hardback.

Lincoln Rhyme was first introduced in The Bone Collector published in 1997. He is a quadriplegic forensic criminalist who was head of the New York Police Department’s Central Investigation and Resource Division, until an oak beam fell on him, crushing his C4 vertebrae, leaving him only able to move from his shoulders up and his left ring finger. Things have moved on in the series and Rhyme has gained a little more movement in his arms.

He was largely paralyzed, yes. But surgery and daily exercise had returned to him some mobility to move his right arm and hand. Fate had helped him too. … He could grasp objects – like single malt scotch bottles, to pick a random example – but he could not rise from his complex wheelchair to fetch them if his resident helper (Thom), kept them out of his reach.

As you might imagine, Rhyme is unable to investigate any of the crime scenes, but in The Bone Collector, he persuades Amelia Sachs, a 31-year-old police officer to walk the scene as his eyes. They have been a team ever since. In chapter 2 of The Burial Hour, Lincoln is discussing with Thom where Amelia and he might go for their honeymoon.

            “No. You and Amelia cannot go to Greenland.” …………………….

            “Because you need to go someplace romantic. Florida, California.”

The discussion is with Thom, who is Lincolns arms and legs and considerably more. But they are interrupted by a visit from Lon Sellitto, a detective in the NYPD Major Cases Division. He’s hoping that Amelia Sachs can walk through a crime scene. An adult male has been kidnapped, observed by a child, the victim had a hood placed over his head and was then dumped in the trunk of a car. The perpetrator has left behind a signature of his visit, a small noose made from catgut.

When Amelia returns from the crime scene the investigation team set up a flipchart to record and review the crime scene data. ‘Often the month and day are used as a temporary nickname for the unknown criminal subject. [In The Burial Hour,] ‘this perb would be UNSUB 920, for September 20.’

[They] set out the items out on examination tables, which were in a separate part of the parlour, away from where the others, dressed in street clothing, clustered, to avoid contamination.

The pickings were sparse. Rhyme knew this, as he’d been ‘with’ Sachs, via video feed, as she’d walked the grid at the scene. All she had found was a small noose, random trace from where the abduction had occurred and some shoe prints and tire mark evidence.

First, the noose. Any prints?

Cooper tested the cord in the fuming tent to raise invisible fingerprints and said, ‘A few slivers. Nothing to work with.’

‘What’s it made out of?’

‘I can run the chromatograph but I’m sure it’s proteins – collagen, keratin and fibroin. I’d say catgut.’

They discover the material the noose is made from is used for stringed musical instruments and most likely, because of its length, a cello. Moments later the team discover that the perp has released a live video of the victim being strangled, depending on his movements, the noose will tighten. The video is set with a soundtrack, The Blue Danube, but as the tune slows down, it’s the victims breathing that matches the tempo of the tune. The video is signed off with the words ‘© The Composer’ in the middle of the screen.

In a desperate desire to save the victim from a terrible death, the team put all their efforts into analysing the data they have before them, time being of the essence. Sachs is soon of on a desperate car journey to the crime scene and arrives in time to release the victim from the noose around his neck. Most important is a find that Sachs comes across while walking the crime scene. A scrap of paper, more or less intact, with four indistinct words. It’s a receipt from a currency exchange bureau.

One of the features used in the Lincoln Rhyme novels is a ‘picture’ of the crime scene board, which spreads over two, sometimes three pages. It will be a case of you like it as a reminder of the case findings, or you find it easy to turn the page and move on. The crime scene board ‘picture’ will be updated throughout the novel so it will appear as many as eight times.

Based on the exchange bureau receipt, the details of the crime and possible trail of the perp is sent out to police forces across Europe. When a local police force in Naples, Italy, request further information on the case, as there are similarities to a case of their own, the story takes a complete change from previous novels. The team are soon on a flight to Italy. It’s the first time Deaver has taken his characters out the USA.

The local team in Naples are surprised that the information on the New York kidnapping arrives on their doorstep in the personal hands of Lincoln Rhyme, and are not happy. However, when they acknowledge Rhyme’s expertise they agree to allow him to review their investigation into the local case as it unfolds. Amelia is also allowed to partner the police officer managing the Naples crime investigation. She proves her value as she walks the grid and quickly solves another kidnapping, even though the criminal escapes. They realise that with another video of the crime, which shows a victim in trouble while haunting music is playing, they are on the trail of The Composer. The team solve three incidents in total, but it is The Composer that helps them prevent a serious incident towards the end of the novel. Released from custody to aid the investigation, he listens to a recorded phone call linked with the case. The Composer has the ability to hear the background sounds from where the call has been made.

I can hear transmissions downshifting and increasing in volume, as the cars get closer to the phone. That means the callers on top of the hill. The hill’s steep. They are mostly cars, mostly small ones, both diesel and gas. One has a muffler about to go. Some vans, I think. But no large trucks.’

Another playback. Staring at a blank wall. ‘Birds. Two different types. First pigeons. There are many of them. I can hear their wings flutter from time to time: once, when a roller board – those things boys ride on – went by. Once when children, about four or five years old, ran after the birds. I can tell the age from their footfalls and the laughs. The pigeons returned at once. They didn’t fly off when cars went by. That tells us that they’re in a square or plaza. Not a street.’

As with all Deaver’s Lincoln Rhyme novels, there is a second case running alongside the main story – sometimes the two are linked, but not always. In this instance, the chief of the Naples police wants to quickly close the second case, but Rhyme decides to secretly work on the forensics and discovers the man they have arrested is being set up. This story has a twist towards the end of the story, that is quite strange and a little complex, but I’m not going to give it away. As you might expect, it’s a story that runs at a fast pace; all Deaver Rhyme novels solve a crime in two or three days, but his story runs to eight days, as a result of the trip to Naples. The novel uses a lot of American phrases and sayings, which the reader has to get used to, I enjoy the use of them and it adds to the setting of the novel. This is another fantastic Jeffery Deaver novel, a real page-turner. Rating: 5 stars.

Dr Sheppard

21 May 2018