Reddit mentions of The Bone Collector (Lincoln Rhyme Book 1)

My two favorite serial killer books are:

The Poet by Michael Connelly

The Bone Collector by Jeffery Deaver (by the way, the book is significantly different - and better! - than the movie)

Okay, back at my desk. I'm 30 and my mom's mid-fifties, so I'll give you the happy medium and list books we both enjoyed:

• Getaway - ACTUAL middle-aged woman goes on a trip to Mexico after her husband unexpectedly passes away. Ends up in the middle of a plot amongst drug runners, etc. Very suspenseful with a great protagonist. I like the author's other book (Rock Paper Tiger) better, but the protagonist is younger and harder to identify with.
  
• Last Will - This one's a bit obscure since it's small press, but it's quite good. It's a strange romance between a totally dysfunctional guy who's just inherited a massive fortune and his also dysfunctional housekeeper.
  
• Kindred - A semi-classic by Octavia Butler. A black woman from the 1970's (IIRC) is transported back in time to a southern plantation and finds herself the unwilling protector of her ancestor - the white son of a plantation owner. I don't usually dig stories like this but this one is excellent.
  
• The Bone Collector - I hate that the cover has the movie tie-in, which sucks, but this is a great mystery. The cop side-kick is an awesome female character and the book is a total page-turner. A bit of romance thrown in, more later on in the series if your mom keeps reading.
  
  Note: Personally, I cannot stand Jodi Picoult. Also, I would very much recommend Time Traveler's Wife, but it is apparently not available in ebook format. WTF?

For crime fiction, my favorite author is Jeffery Deaver, notably his Lincoln Rhyme series. The first book in the series is The Bone Collector (was made into a movie a few years ago with Denzel Washington). The main character is a forensic specialist and so a lot of the detective work is based on crime scene analysis. If the CSI kind of deal doesn't interest you, you could check out his Kathryn Dance series, starting with The Sleeping Doll. In this series, the main character is an expert at body language clues and thus a lot of the crime solving is based on interrogations.