The Burial Hour. Finished audio 1-11-19, 3.5/5 stars, thriller, pub. 2017

Book 13 in the Lincoln Rhyme series  (1st-The Bone Collector, 2nd- The Coffin Dancer, 3rd- The Empty Chair, 4th- The Stone Monkey, 5th- The Vanished Man, 6th- The Twelfth Card, 7th- The Cold Moon, 8th- The Broken Window 9th- The Burning Wire, 10th-The Kill Room 12th-The Steel Kiss)

14 hours read by Edoardo Ballerini.

A businessman snatched from an Upper East Side street in broad daylight. A miniature hangman’s noose left at the scene. A nine-year-old girl, the only witness to the crime. With a crime scene this puzzling, forensic expertise of the highest order is absolutely essential. Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs are called in to investigate.

Soon the case takes a stranger turn: a recording surfaces of the victim being slowly hanged, his desperate gasps the backdrop to an eerie piece of music. The video is marked as the work of The Composer…

Despite their best efforts, the suspect gets away. So when a similar kidnapping occurs on a dusty road outside Naples, Italy, Rhyme and Sachs don’t hesitate to rejoin the hunt.   from Goodreads

I love Lincoln and Amelia and Tom, but I loved the Italian setting and characters we found there even more.  I’ve never been to Naples so I don’t know how much leans toward truth and how much is more cliche, but it was fun for someone who doesn’t know the difference.

For much of the book it was all about chasing down the Conductor before he kills again, but then BOOM something happens and that’s not what’s going on anymore.  The mystery aspect was good and the new characters were good, only Lincoln himself seemed a bit diminished in this one and that was okay for me because everything else worked.

Recommended for those who love Italian settings and for thriller lovers.  I’m not sure, given Lincoln’s smaller role, that you would even need to read any of the rest of the series to enjoy this one and I don’t say that very often.