The Steel Kiss

January 18, 2016
Bestseller Deaver’s clever 12th Lincoln Rhyme novel (after 2014’s The Skin Collector) finds the forensic expert no longer working for the NYPD. But Rhyme’s lover, NYPD Major Cases detective Amelia Sachs, could use his help. She was chasing a murder suspect in a Brooklyn department store when she stopped to deal with a bizarre, fatal elevator accident. The lawyer for the wife of the man who was crushed in the elevator’s gears wants Rhyme to assist in a difficult civil suit. Meanwhile, the suspect, a cunning killer, plots more attacks that employ ingenious ways to subvert modern technology. Entertaining subplots focus on the release from prison of Sachs’s lover before Rhyme, Nick Carelli, who served time for robbery and assault; a private mission undertaken by Patrolman Ron Pulaski, a former protégé of Rhyme’s; and the travails of Rhyme’s new protégé, intern Juliette Archer. Convincing characters and an unexpected closing twist will remind readers why Deaver is one of today’s top thriller writers. Author tour. Agent: Deborah Schneider, Gelfman Schneider Literary Agents.

January 15, 2016
The latest of Lincoln Rhyme's fiendishly inventive antagonists is a killer who rails against rampant consumerism online, then hacks into the Internet of Things to murder New Yorkers who've grown too attached to their computer-driven toys. Following a spotting of the perp dubbed Unsub 40 in a crowded shopping center, the NYPD's Amelia Sachs is at the point of apprehending him when a calamitous escalator accident claims her attention and bystander Greg Frommer's life. Unsub 40 escapes to plot further sabotage of the microchips that regulate the behavior of common household and industrial devices that might otherwise turn nightmarishly lethal--though he'd be even happier with the kind of hands-on violence that allowed him to swing a ball-peen hammer or wield a razor-sharp saw. Amelia directs Frommer's destitute widow, Sandy, to attorney Evers Whitmore and quadriplegic criminalist Lincoln Rhyme (The Skin Collector, 2014, etc.), who's now left criminal investigation to teach forensics and concentrate on civil cases, for their help in preparing a liability lawsuit against--well, against anyone they can find with plausible liability and substantial assets. For a while, it looks as if Amelia and Rhyme, her sometime lover, will be competing for expert help and resources. But their two cases predictably join together, freeing them to focus together on what they do best: turning over every clod of dirt in the Big Apple in search of Unsub 40, who continues, through a combination of cunning and uncanny good luck, to elude them. Deaver, evidently worried that he hasn't provided a generous enough banquet of felonies, interleaves a couple of complementary cases for Rhyme and Amelia's associates, but these are both subpar and distracting, though they do allow another of his patented multistage, 60-page denouements, though this time with gradually diminishing returns. Fans savvy enough to ignore the ill-advised extras and keep their eyes on the duel between Rhyme and Unsub 40 will be treated to all the usual thrills, which are worth every breathless minute.

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February 15, 2016
In the new Lincoln Rhyme thriller, the criminologist is stymied by his latest adversary, a serial killer who commits murder without ever getting in close physical proximity to his victims, and who uses the most innocuous, unsuspected weapons. He claims to be a crusader, issuing proclamations after each kill, but does he have other motives as well? As usual, Deaver juggles several plotlines here: the main story and a few subordinate stories (including one that involves the return of the ex-con, ex-cop, ex-lover of Rhyme's partner, Amelia Sachs). The plot twists are clever and unexpected, the dialogue is colloquial and natural, and the charactersespecially Rhyme, Sachs, and the killer, who contributes to the story via first-person narrative passagesare vividly realized. Highly recommendable to fans of the series, and to any non-Deaver readers who appreciate a nice mix of plot and character. While there are some plot threads carried over from previous books, the novel can be read as a stand-alone.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

February 1, 2016

In Deaver's 12th Lincoln Rhyme novel (after The Skin Collector), NYPD officer Amelia Sachs tracks a sick and twisted domestic terrorist with a grudge against capitalism. Vernon Griffith, the People's Guardian, has stolen a long list of products installed with a DataWise5000 smart controller and, using a Wi-Fi remote and cloud technology, triggers products to malfunction and thus maim or kill victims--stairs on an escalator give way, a microwave explodes, a transmission disengages, a circuit box electrocutes, a band saw blade loosens, a stove seeps gas, and a baby monitor shocks a child. After much methodical and ingenious sleuthing, Sachs and her mentor, the paraplegic criminologist Lincoln Rhyme, follow a circuitous route of evidence across Manhattan until they finally identify the killer and the rationale behind the accidents. But they lose his trail. VERDICT Fans will marvel at the creative manner in which Deaver incorporates current technological and societal trends into the plots of his thrillers--in this case, remote devices signaling smart controllers. [See Prepub Alert, 10/4/15.]--Jerry P. Miller. Cambridge, MA

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2015

Amelia Sachs is chasing down a killer in a Brooklyn department store when an escalator collapses, crunching a bystander. Sachs and forensic detective Lincoln Rhyme soon realize that this was no accident. The next Lincoln Rhyme novel, following The Skin Collector.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.