te when being questioned is a poor strategy for a witness, even the most brilliant. A seemingly awkward defence counsel demonstrates some trace evidence might have come from the area of Lincoln’s home and contaminated evidence from a crime scene. A mobster, Victor Buryak, is acquitted of murder.
The “Locksmith” surreptitiously enters the apartments of women. He moves, leaves and takes objects while the women are asleep. He is extremely skilled in lock picking. I learned more about locks in this book than I had ever known before.
The Locksmith, like a lock, is precisely organized. He carefully plans using surveillance and searches of social media. He appears to be escalating.
To distract public attention from the unsuccessful prosecution the Mayor’s Office forces the NYPD to cease using consultants. Officers contacting Lincoln are threatened with obstruction of justice charges.
Buryak returns to operating his crime business. He eschews the crudeness of such mob staples as armed robbery and prostitution. He relies on crews of researchers and hackers. He sells informateion. Known as the “Godfather of Information,” After acquittal Buryak sits in his lavish home drinking tea and plotting revenge against the “Chemist” - Lincoln Rhyme.
The Locksmith has been a “peeper” since a boy. He has an obsession to secretly watch people. As a teenager he made “Visits”. Sometimes observisng, other times leaving items inside homes or vehicles. He knows he is mentally disturbed.
As the Locksmith, he is wreaking havoc with the minds of women. He is as creepy a figure as I have encountered in crime fiction. Who does not fear the silent night intruder?
On each New York visit he leaves a fragment of the same page from a tabloid newspaper, Daily Herald, upon which he writes a phrase.
What connects the Locksmith’s visits? The answer is logical but devilishy difficult even for the brilliant Rhyme.
The Buryak subplot disappears for most of the book.
Another, rather bizarre subplot, involves Verum, a self-proclaimed prophet of truth upon the internet, spreading conspiracy theories of secret government interventions through the “Hidden”. I thought it a distraction even when it was connected to the main plot.
As expected in a Deaver book the twists increase as the end nears. I saw a couple coming but most surprised me. The third last was not credible and a little disappointing. The second last was no surprise. The last was unexpected. None of them were needed. Still, Deaver is so accomplished at twisting the story.While I see a surplus of twists Deaver makes the pages flow easily, there is always unexpected information and interesting villains. I will continue to read Lincoln Rhyme books. (Feb. 28/23)
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Deaver, Jeffery – (2000) - The Empty Chair; (2002) - The Stone Monkey; (2002) - Mistress of Justice; (2003) - The Vanished Man; (2005) - Garden of Beasts; (2005) - The Twelfth Card; (2006) - Cold Moon; (Tied for 3rd Best fiction of 2006); (2008) - The Broken Window; (2010) - The Burning Wire; (2013) - The Kill Room; (2014) - The Skin Collector; (2017) - The Steel Kiss; (2019) - The Burial Hour; (2021) - The Never Game and Handwritten Notes Are the Best
The idea of locksmithing is interesting to me, Bill, because I don't know much about it. And, yes, the silent night intruder is a scary, scary prospect. Your comments made me think about the way twists and turns are built into the plot. I can see how sometimes it all would get a bit much. At any rate, I'm glad you thought it was good enough to keep reading Deaver's Lincoln Rhyme stories.
ReplyDeleteMargot: Thanks for the comment. It is a wicked thriller that makes the reader feel vulnerable. To read about the futility of locks against an experienced lock picker is very uncomfortable.
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