The Skin Collector & The Goombay Smash

Kim Hammond brings us a review of Jeffery Deaver's book The Skin Collector and recommends that you read it while drinking a Goombay Smash. Jeffery Deaver is a guest of honor at the world's largest mystery convention this year. The event is called Bouchercon and will be held in Long Beach, CA November 13-16. You can get more information on Bouchercon here.  

Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs are back in a new thriller of the creepy kind. A new killer is on the loose in New York City and the case keeps making Rhyme think of the bone collector case, although his nemesis in that case has recently died. 

Rhyme is a forensic scientist and the former head of the NYPD forensics department who is now a quadriplegic. He acts as a police consultant and is exceptional in what he does. Sachs is a current NYPD detective and his partner of sorts, in more ways than one.

Someone is abducting people and killing them in sub-basements and tunnels under NYC. The killer’s preferred method of torture? Using a tattoo machine and poison instead of ink to “modify” the victims with a cryptic message. The coroner has confirmed that the deaths would have been agonizing. 

Rhyme’s team, with the help of the NYPD, are racing around to try and decipher the killer’s message before he or she kills again. Meanwhile, they are being watched and studied, the better to avoid detection, or so the killer thinks. When one of their own is attacked with a deadly poison, Rhyme know the killer will stop at nothing.  

The book is full of twists and turns and red herrings to send you off track.  It is craftily written and very fast paced. 

Drink: Goombay Smash

I picked this drink not because it has any significance to the book, but that it’s a fabulous tropical drink that I love, I first had one in the Bahamas many years ago and it makes me think of vacations, beaches and fun. Who doesn’t like that?!

1 oz spiced rum
1 oz Malibu® coconut rum
1/4 oz apricot brandy
2 oz pineapple juice
2 oz orange juice

Mix all ingredients in a highball glass with ice and shake. Garnish with an orange slice, cherry or pineapple wedge. You could also mix this in a blender with some crushed ice to make it like a slushie…..yum.