There’s something so comfortable about reading these Lincoln Rhyme books at this point in the series, you know the pattern and how it’s going to work, so you can dive right in and get on with the ride. I did notice this time there wasn’t a lot of personal stuff, just the odd nod to the relationship between Rhyme and Sachs, but nothing too dramatic.

This was one of those twisty short stories that Deaver does so well, but this time it’s an audiobook read by the marvellous David Harbour. I whipped through it super quickly. Interesting insight into death row and how people campaign against it regardless of the crimes and the feelings of the actual criminal themselves. The twist ending didn’t quite work in my head but I got the vibe and I do love the twists when they come.

Jeffery Deaver has written quite a few of these Amazon Original short stories - more than I had thought - and it’s very interesting working through them. He’s an expert at writing stories with excellent twists and it’s always a lot of fun trying to guess which way things are going to go. I enjoyed this book, didn’t have a clue what the ending was going to be, and although it felt a little bit out there, probably not too believable, it was well plotted and uncovering the puzzle a piece at a time was great.

Another Amazon Original short story from Deaver, and I really liked this one. It’s compact and neat but full of the traditional twists and turns. I quite liked that it was from a different point of view than normal - not the detectives, or the protagonist, but instead from an old school reporter, steeped in the traditional ways of making the news, juxtaposed with the new generation of reporters. It was a great old vs new story, and in the end, how both worked really well together. Good stuff.

This is a short story commissioned by Amazon, and it follows your usual Jeffery Deaver style - some horrifying murders that need solving. It was good though, short, entertaining, and with a twist that I didn’t see coming. Considering how much I read of Deaver’s works, that’s a really good sign. I believe there’s another Amazon Original short story so I’ll be digging that one out too.

I wasn’t as keen on this book as I have been on others, the travel to Italy didn’t work for me as well as I’d hoped, there seemed to be quite a feature on the language barriers and different cultures without it really making any difference to the story. I did enjoy Ercole though, a fish out of water detective who was blamed for making errors when he was actually one of the smartest ones there. Still, interesting mystery that I didn’t guess any of the twists and turns to at all.

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