The Burning Wire: Lincoln Rhyme Book 9 (Lincoln Rhyme Thrillers) - Softcover

Deaver, Jeffery

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0340937300 ISBN 13: 9780340937303

Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks, 2011

Synopsis

Lincoln Rhyme must contend with a new killer and an old nemesis.

'The best psychological thriller writer around' - The Times

New York City is being held to ransom.
Manhattan's electricity grid is being used to murder people... and more attacks are planned.

While the FBI and Homeland Security struggle to determine who's behind the carnage, Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs race to decode the forensics in order to prevent the next assault.

But all is not what it seems. Lincoln Rhyme soon finds he's up against a merciless killer with a unique weapon - one that can be found in everyone's home and office.

What's more, one of the few criminals to have ever slipped Rhyme's net is back in operation. Working in Mexico, the deadly assassin known as the Watchmaker has set his murderous sights on more innocent victims, whose identities are as yet unknown ...

Lincoln Rhyme must race against the clock, juggling the two investigations, as they hurtle headlong toward their deadly outcomes.

The ninth instalment of the electrifyingly thrilling Lincoln Rhyme series.

About this title

Review:

Jeffery Deaver is still top of the tree, as his new novel, The Burning Wire, pleasurably reaffirms. Deaver remains as adept at keeping our pulses at an accelerated rate with quite as much assurance as he demonstrated in his earlier books (and his grand tally of novels is approaching thirty). The new book carefully and skilfully puts into place all the touches that have made the Lincoln Rhyme series so popular, and Deaver ensures his narrative is au fait with technology (always a strong suit of his books – there’s a lot of it in this one, be warned).

The citizens of New York are under attack, with the electricity grid being controlled to grim criminal ends. Hideous, electricity-induced death is raining down, and the natural assumption is that it is the work of terrorists. The CIA and the FBI are pursuing this avenue, but quadriplegic criminologist Lincoln Rhyme (Deaver’s long-term protagonist) is studying the forensic evidence, helped (as usual) by the resourceful Amelia Sachs and a talented team (among its number, FBI agent Fred Dellray). The attacks, Rhyme realises, are not terror-inspired, but the work of a brilliant criminal, whose manipulation of electricity in all its forms will give Rhyme and his co. their biggest ever headache.

Storytelling of a compelling order is the name of the game here, with suspenseful revelations hitting the reader at calculated intervals. And along with the crack use of narrative technique, there's the usual on-the-hoof, economical characterisation for Lincoln Rhyme and his team; just enough to make us think this is not somewhere we’ve been before.

Jeffery Deaver has spread his non-Rhyme wings before with his Kathryn Dance books, but the author has now signed on to continue Ian Fleming’s durable James Bond franchise. His Bond book is currently labelled Project X, but until it appears, The Burning Wire reminds us that the author is one of the surest scribes in the thriller field. --Barry Forshaw

Review:

Another corker . . . precision-engineered to keep the reader turning the pages without a hitch (Evening Standard on THE BROKEN WINDOW)

One of the great detective teams of contemporary crime fiction come storming back . . . Deaver never disappoints, and this novel shines (Mark Timlin in Independent on Sunday on THE BROKEN WINDOW)

The best psychological thriller writer around (The Times)

The most creative, skilled and intriguing thriller writer in the world . . . [Deaver] has produced a stunning series of bestsellers with unique characterisation, intelligent characters, beguiling plots and double-barrelled and sometimes triple-barrelled solutions. (Daily Telegraph)

About this edition

• Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0340937300
• ISBN 13: 9780340937303
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 480