Abandoned by Booklikes

I am just done with this nonsensical series.

It has just gone down the tubes for me since #11 (The Skin Collector).

That is three books in a row where not much is happening and too many coincidences drive the plot. Deaver doesn't even bother with trying to artfully explain the science in these books anymore. We just get regurgitation of facts and Rhyme acting like an asshole to everyone.

It doesn't help Rhyme and Sachs read like robots in this book. There is no there for me anymore between these two. Deaver wrote himself into a hole with getting rid of Sachs having issues with her arthritis.

Matters not helped by Deaver trying to turn these two into a super forensic spy team at the end. I don't even want to go there in future books. Let's pretend that the things they will end up doing will totally be legal and be allowed to be used as evidence. 

The writing was not good and the flow was awful. I think that a good 1/3 of this book could have been deleted and you would not have missed anything vitally important. Why oh why Deaver did not just end on Rhyme and Sachs getting married baffles me. We go from what could have been a sweet/strong ending to the two of them solving another crime. I could not believe it. It just went on and on and I didn't care. I can see why so many readers started to skim this. It's your only defense to not fall totally asleep.

The setting of this book is moved from New York (after the first couple of pages) to Italy. The only thing you have to know about Italy is that Rhyme likes the grappa. Also he is still an asshole to everyone. We get a plethora of new characters that I stopped keeping track of after a while. Why we spent so much time in these people's heads is beyond me. I started calling one of the Italians the new rookie cause that's who he was the stand in for IMHO.

The ending as I already said just died on the vine. We go from a happy event to another crime with Rhyme and Sachs thinking a murder is about to occur. Cue new characters and a murderous lesbian and I just was done. 

Fin.