THE BURIAL HOUR

4.5 stars out of 5

At nearly 500 pages, I'm pretty sure this is one of the longest Jeffery Deaver books I've ever read - at least of the series starring forensic detective Lincoln Rhyme. What it is not, however, is the best of the bunch.

To be sure, though, it's very good; and despite my grousing that I'd be reading it for several days, I surprised myself by polishing it off in just two. And for the most part, I enjoyed the experience from beginning to end - starting with the kidnapping of a man from New York's Upper East Side witnessed only by a young girl even though it took place in broad daylight. The perpetrator left behind a miniature noose made from a musical instrument string. Rhyme and his co-investigator (and soon to be wife), Amelia Sachs, are called in; shortly thereafter, a video is posted online showing the victim as he is slowly being hanged. Stranger still is that his gasps for air are synced to music, and the video is "signed" by someone called The Composer.

Search and seizure efforts by Rhyme and Sachs are only partly successful, and the kidnapper gets away. But then, a near identical incident takes place near Naples, Italy (noose and all), and in the flash of a private jet, the dynamic duo - accompanied by Rhyme's faithful and tough-nosed caretaker, Thom - make their way to the City of the Sun. The Italian police higher-ups clearly resent help from the Americans, but as Rhyme and Sachs sift through forensic evidence and prove their worth, the Italians grudgingly accept their insights. 

Meantime, readers learn the kidnapper's identity through interspersed chapters written from his perspective. Then fairly early on comes another case as a young American living and playing hard in Italy is arrested for battery and rape. Rhymes and Sachs are asked by the defense to help with this one as well - to look for evidence that suggests someone else could have done the dirty deed. As they begin to work on both cases, they learn that the Italian prosecutor on the rape case is the same guy who's carrying a chip on his shoulder about interference from the American duo on the kidnapping case. Oops - not exactly the way to win him over.

The original kidnapping case leads to an Italian camp that provides sanctuary for the thousands of immigrants who have fled their home countries in search of a better life (clarifying the meaning of the book's title and adding an element of timeliness to the plot). Clearly, there's plenty going on here.

But sometimes, plenty is too much. The details of the plot, the number of characters and the geographic settings seem to go on and on unnecessarily and, alas, with a lot less interaction than I like to see between Rhymes and Sachs. On the plus side, the loose ends (well, perhaps all but one) are tied up neatly. And, clues led me to suspect that many of those details and characters are meant to lay the foundation for a future book or books, so I'm willing to back off a bit on my criticism. In any event, it's for sure I'm eagerly awaiting the next installment - love this series!

The Burial Hour by Jeffery Deaver (Grand Central Publishing, April 2017); 480 pp.