The Stone Monkey

This is the 4th installment in Jeffery Deaver's "Lincoln Rhyme" series --he has 3 other series, none of which I've dipped into. The first book in the series, The Bone Collector, as you may remember, was made into a movie with Denzel Washington as Lincoln Rhyme, and Angelina Jolie as the cop he recruits to become his mobile forensic evidence collector, since he is now confined to a motorized wheelchair. This tale centers around a particularly vicious smuggler of illegal immigrants who just killed the last group of illegals he brought in. Known as "The Ghost" because there are no photos or fingerprints of him on file, he is being tracked by Rhyme in an attempt to stop him before any more people die. The Ghost scuttles the ship with his most recent "shipment" but a lone man and two families escape. Amelia rescues the man from drowning, apparently; he is wearing a stone pendant of the Monkey King. He claims to be a doctor who wants to help Amelia with her physical and emotional pain, or is he just using her for something more sinister?  It is up to Lincoln and Amelia to find the two missing families where they have hidden away in New York City before the Ghost does.  This one had a twist that surprised me, some soul searching on the part of the main characters, as well as Deaver's usual taut storyline.