Jeffery Deaver’s ‘The Burial Hour’ Delivers A Rush of Pure Adrenaline [REVIEW]

A hangman’s noose leads Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs on an international manhunt in The Burial Hour. (Photo by Fraser Mummery, Flickr)

A businessman vanishes on a busy city street. A young girl witnesses the crime. A hangman’s noose is left at the scene. Jeffery Deaver’s beloved forensic detectives Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs return to solve another blistering case in The Burial Hour. 

Grand Central

As if the case weren’t already perplexing enough, suddenly  a recording shows up from someone called The Composer that pushes this case into bizarro territory. In it, the victim’s hands and feet are bound as he is slowly hanged, his final gasps for breath set to eerie music. Even with all this mounting evidence, however, Rhyme and Sachs fail to solve the case and the suspect remains at large.

When a similar abduction occurs on a dusty road in Italy, the detectives quickly join the investigation. The big problem now, however, is that suddenly this case has become an international manhunt, and not everyone working the case can be trusted.

As lives hang in the balance, Rhyme and Sachs find themselves playing a dangerous game of cat and mouse with an opponent who isn’t afraid to up the ante every opportunity he gets. Can the good detectives locate the killer in time? And will the Naples police prove worthy colleagues or impediments to their investigation?

With The Burial Hour, Jeffery Deaver once again proves that he is a master manipulator as he brings our worst fears to vivid life. Utilizing captivating theatrics, he sets a hauntingly macabre tone that permeates this novel and sets our teeth on edge. Yet readers will soon realize they are powerless under the spell of a writer at the top of his game. Fueled by high-octane scenes and culminating in an unforgettable conclusion of epic proportions, The Burial Hour is pure adrenaline. What a rush!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jeffery Deaver is the international number-one bestselling author of more than 30 novels, three collections of short stories and a nonfiction law book. His work has been sold in 150 countries and translated into 25 languages. Three of his books, A Maiden’s Grave, The Bone Collector and The Devil’s Teardrop were made into films or made-for-TV movies. He is also a frequent public speaker and has delivered numerous lectures and keynote addresses at conferences and festivals around the world.

The former journalist, folksinger and attorney has received numerous awards, including: the International Thriller Writers‘ Novel of the Year Award; the British Crime Writers’ Association‘s Steel Dagger and Short Story Dagger; the Nero Wolfe Award; three Ellery Queen Reader Awards for Best Short Story of the Year; the British Thumping Good Read Award; the Mystery Writers Association of Japan‘s Book of the Year Award; as well as two of the Japanese Adventure Fiction Association‘s Grand Prix awards. 

Born outside Chicago, Deaver has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri and a law degree from Fordham University. Visit his home on the Web at JefferyDeaver.com, like him on Facebook, and follow him on Twitter.

THE BURIAL HOUR
By Jeffery Deaver
480 pp. Grand Central. $28.

Purchase The Burial Hour at one of these fine online retailers: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Hudson Booksellers, and IndieBound.