When it comes to book series, I usually like to start at the beginning. It's rare that I'll just pick up a Book 7 or a Book 10 as an entry point, but when it comes to particularly long series (as is the case with this one, where there are more than a dozen titles and the first one was written in the 1990s) I will sometimes break that rule because the only thing more irritating to me than feeling like I'm coming into a narrative in progress is one where I feel like the books are so outdated it's hard to give the author a fair shake (like when I read Brad Meltzer's "The Tenth Justice"   last year). Having not read any Jeffrey Deaver books before, I decided that I liked the synopsis for this book and it's a relatively episodic-type procedural series, so I'd give it a try:



Other than the fact that Jeffrey Deaver has chosen to write a dozen-plus book series featuring a quadriplegic investigator protagonist, which I do give him a lot of credit for, I found the book really tedious and overwritten. The protagonist, in addition to being quadriplegic, also happens to be an aloof prick. It's always strange to me how many writers interpret "intellectual" characters or genius as dispassionate and unemotional. That can work sometimes when you have other endearing qualities to offset (like Gregory House in HOUSE, or Temperance Brennan in BONES), but a lot of authors forget the "endearing qualities to offset" part of that equation. Lincoln Rhyme is just kind of a dick... smarter than everyone else in the room and not shy about letting people know that at every opportunity.

But enough about the character... onto the specific plot of this book, which is why I picked it up!

Unfortunately, not good on that front either.

The narrative jumps between Lincoln Rhyme and this criminal known as "The Locksmith" who is a master of picking locks (it's mentioned specifically in the book that, as he's practicing on certain types of locks, his time is half that of established world records) and uses his talent to stalk young women, letting himself into their homes and watching them while they sleep. And for a while, the narrative is fine because it seems like Rhyme is pitting his formidable intelligence against someone who is a ghost, leaving no trace.

Where things go off the rails is when a third element is introduced... The Locksmith constantly refers to "an incident in 2019" which he is determined to not repeat by being even more careful than before. And while the author lets you think that "2019" refrain is in reference to an event that happened a few years ago, it's actually in reference to a recent event that happened in Apartment 2019 where he attempted to break in, was caught, and is being blackmailed into doing the bidding of one of his intended victims. I have to admit, that misdirect was actually pretty good, if a little pointless because it didn't really affect the narrative much.

The rest of the story was really predictable and, honestly, pretty boring. The Locksmith is blackmailed into helping his intended victim (a wealthy socialite/businesswoman) kill the relative who's trying to steal her company from her. There are also some random subplots sprinkled in (the socialite is also an anonymous online "activist," there's another case going on at the same time, Rhyme is dealing with being suspended from the police department for botching that side case, etc.) that felt like they were trying to cover up the blandness of the main narrative. The book could have ditched these unnecessary subplots and been 60% of the length and been a better book for it.

Overall, I wasn't terribly impressed with this book. Jeffrey Deaver is a decent writer, and maybe this just wasn't his best (with fifteen books in a series, they can't all be winners!), but I'm not exactly rushing out to read another one. Maybe if the write synopsis catches my interest again...

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Created Apr 06, 2024 at 12:34pm • Submit your own review...