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The Broken Window

Author: Jeffery Deaver
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Category: Book

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Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

3 reviews
Sales Rank: 218

Media: Hardcover
Pages: 432
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.7

ISBN: 034093722X
EAN: 9780340937228
ASIN: 034093722X

Publication Date: July 24, 2008 (New: Last 30 Days)
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: brand new book despatched swiftly from the uk

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Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars

Excellent, twenty first century plot August 10, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful

A brilliant story. Very scary and thought provoking. I'm a great fan of Lincoln and Amelia and Mr Deaver has certainly not let me down with this thriller. It could well change the way you look at your life after reading this book.

5 out of 5 stars

Back to the top of his form August 8, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful

Fantastic top notch book reminiscent of his earlier novels such as Bone Collector and Coffin Dancer. A book that makes you think and worry that it could happen to you and makes you wonder about how much information is monitored about you for data mining. The killer is very evil and murders one of the main characters that I wont spoil the plot. The book is so full of twists and turns it will leave your head spinning.

Bravo Deaver keep it up and looking forward to the enevitable update to Cold Moon.

4 out of 5 stars

The Great Lincoln Rhyme Conspiracy Thriller July 27, 2008
14 out of 16 found this review helpful

The latest Lincoln Rhyme novel features the recurring Jeffery Deaver topics of identity theft and the individual's right to privacy. As a one-time lawyer, Jeff has long been concerned with protecting both civil and personal liberty and the growth of intrusive surveillance employed by certain agencies.

'The Broken Window' has yet another unhinged serial killer, and develops into the familiar game of cat and mouse between Rhyme, the brilliant quadriplegic forensic scientist, and a very clever criminal sociopath. This killer is an obsessive collector of all manner of consumer goods - the detritus of everyday life - and has access to personal computer data for the victims he targets.

It begins with Lincoln advising the Metropolitan Police on the apprehension of a global professional killer when he's informed that his cousin Arthur - who he grew up with prior to their falling-out - has been arrested on suspicion of murder, and the case against him seems cast-iron. Naturally, flaws are immediately spotted under the Rhyme microscope and Lincoln realises he's up against a cunning killer who murders at will, then frames innocent parties after stealing their identity. He places the other case on hold and diverts his considerable brainpower to the task of apprehending the guilty party, and thus liberating Arthur.

His investigation leads to a cutting-edge data mining company - Strategic Systems Datacorps (SSD) - who among other things, maintain comprehensive profiles of every American citizen, which they sell to companies targeting a particular demographic. SSD also have a full range of other software programs - both analytical and predictive - which they claim to have developed for the greater good. Only when Rhyme's team get into the company's databases does the full extent of their snooping become apparent.

By page 80 we've already had two pieces of Deaver misdirection (both of which we've seen before - many times!) and I began to fear it would turn into the series of contrived scenarios that have marred two or three of the books in the series.

But no, Jeffery reins these in and supplies a number of satisfying twists near the end. To say that the book is meticulously researched (Jeff has his own team to do this), rigorously constructed and is completely ingenious, is a given. To say that the plot is totally implausible is another! But, his characterisation is, as usual, excellent and a comparatively mellow Lincoln Rhyme is assisted by the usual cast - his personal aide, Thom, the lovely Amelia Sachs, Lon Sellitto, Mel Cooper et al.

The kind of surveillance Jeff writes about here just isn't a reality at present, and this is where the book verges on science fiction. But that's no bad thing. Deaver even cites, and quotes from, two very early SF classics - `Brave New World' and `1984' to emphasize this point and to underline the dangers of a totalitarian society where `They' know everything about you.

As with all the Lincoln Rhyme books the main span of this techno-thriller is compressed into a very short space of time - around three days - and this makes the book more immediate and lends it a real page-turning quality. I would think that few will be completely disappointed with this one and absolutely NO-ONE could ever accuse Jeff of not giving the reader his moneys' worth!

In the book's final few pages it becomes obvious who the subject of the next Rhyme thriller will be - but to say any more would be to give the game away!

This isn't quite top-of-the-range Lincoln Rhyme, but it's pretty good stuff. It's certainly better than last year's fairly boring `The Sleeping Doll', featuring his new investigator Kathryn Dance - who's name-checked several times in here. I can see `The Broken Window being read on a number of long flights this summer...