Most Helpful Customer Reviews
81 of 87 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Feints, old villians and new discoveries, June 13, 2008
I have been a fan of the Lincoln Rhyme books from day one. The brilliant Detective, who suffered the same type of injury as the late Christopher Reeve, has now gone through some experimental work that has more feeling in his fingers, and body, but is still dependant on his electric wheelchair. His lady, cop Amelia Sachs, is his feet and body as she searches for clues by 'working the grid' of crime scenes and their love for each other transcends a man who cannot walk and a young lady who can try to be part of helping and learning as well as loving this man. The Broken Window deals with Identity Theft. If you've never been touched by Identity Theft, count yourself lucky - it is a terrible violation and you have to spend a lot of time getting your life back in order. A brilliant villian, slowly takes over the lives of respectible men and women and he plays with them like a spider with a fly in her web. He can take their identities, ruin their credit, discredit professionals so they cannot practise their arts, even drive them to suicide. Oh yes, he also likes to kill them too. So starts a game of cat and mouse with Rhyme and co. and a brilliant mastermind. What we learn is maybe TMI - too much information about the subject - we are numbers - everything we purchase on the Internet can be accessed and information sold/given to others to contact you to be interested in their products. You get on mailing lists and then get really weird junk mail and you find it all ties back to a purchase you made on the Internet. It sounds like I'm talking about John Twelve Hawks, in the Traveler, but it's Deaver's crafty touch. He also does not let us forget 2 major projects of his - the continuing saga of The Watchmaker, and he gives us several healthy doses of references to Kathryn Dance, the kinesthics specialist in California that was introduced in a Rhyme book. The book was as always excellent, dealing with this person tossing, Lincoln's once close cousin into a tailspin accused of murder, and Rhyme's memories of their closeness, and what happened that makes Lincoln continually think - what might have happened if...? The reason I give it 4 stars is Deaver goes into SOOOOO much information on the subject that it is almost overwhelming. Yes you get the point. But I am not writing a paper on the subject. It is a fascinating, frightening subject, and again, another fine Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs adventure. Just keep an eye on your credit rating!
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35 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A 'Learning' Experience, June 18, 2008
In the newest of the Lincoln Rhyme novels, Jeffery Deaver explores the world of identity fraud and the fact that there are people out there learning things about us that we are unlikely to want them to know. At the same time, he shows the ways in which they are doing this--the security issues which they face, the volume of computer memory required for the task and the precise sorts of information which they seek. Needless to say, this is as creepy as it is contemporary. There are two villains at work--one at the periphery of the story, a man faced by Rhyme in the past, and one at the center, known to Rhyme and the members of his team as 522 (who recently struck on 5/22). Since he refers to all of them by number as well, this is appropriate. The focus here is on forensics and computers, with a dash of abnormal psychology. The villain is plausible, nasty, and in for a major confrontation, though not quite the confrontation he might have expected. Amelia is in danger and Linc must rush to her aid in the only ways open to him. The world of the data-mining company is very nicely realized and just as weird, alienating, and plausible as we might fear. This is prime Rhyme, with a driving plot, an excellent ensemble cast, and even the chance to learn more about the private Rhyme, since his cousin Arthur is one of 522's victims. Linc must save everyone--relatives as well as loved ones--in this case. Structurally, the ending is different from what we usually expect in a Deaver novel, but I will save the details lest I spoil it for readers. Highly recommended.
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20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Started out great, good subject, but got tedious about halfway through, September 19, 2008
The author tackles a very important contemporary issue in this book, and it was a real page-turner until about halfway through when nothing really new was happening. For one thing, Rhyme is a rather boring character. He's got one emotion: cranky. I can see nothing to attract a beautiful woman like his current partner. He doesn't have an ounce of charm, and we all know a strong woman won't be with a man who is devoid of it. So there's no "chemistry" there whatsoever. The story was fun when it was a true "who-dunnit" but when the author started using clever little ploys to fool us into thinking we had the guy, then it turned out to be someone else, I felt a little cheated and it felt very blah-blah-blah, gimme a break. And then, when the person it really was turned out to be sort of a deus ex machina - from out of nowhere and a dull nowhere at that...I guess I just lost interest and wished the book would end. Also, two side stories could have been really juicy, but they fell short: the one about Pam and her married teacher boyfriend. That came to a dead halt. Then the story about Rhyme's cousin Arthur: I wanted to actually experience the cousins making it up in the end. But then, since Rhyme is such a one-note johnny, I can't imagine how a reunion would have been very rich anyway. Let's put it this way: Deaver could take note of Dave Robicheaux, Matthew Scudder and Easy Rawlins, protagonists with depth, and inner lives heartfelt by the reader.
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