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THE BROKEN WINDOW
by Jeffrey Deaver
Simon & Schuster, June 2008
432 pages
$26.95
ISBN: 1416549978


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Jeffery Deaver carved out his own niche when he first introduced Lincoln Rhyme in the popular THE BONE COLLECTOR. That character has come up against and outfaced a great number of smart and creative killers but this time the villain might just be more than a match for him. This one is a different kind of collector, one who sees his victims as numbers. "Sixteens" he likes to call them. He is a villain for the twenty-first century.

Rhyme and his team have dubbed the killer UNSUB 522, an UNknown SUBject who committed his first known crime on May 22. He made a big mistake if he hoped to continue on his career of perfect crimes, and that was framing the cousin of New York's top forensic expert, Lincoln Rhyme, for murder. The evidence against Arthur Rhyme is overwhelming and quite damning. However, there is no way that he could have possibly committed the brutal slaying of Alice Sanderson. Lincoln investigates the evidence against his cousin to see if he can uncover any mistakes during the police investigation, but he discovers something worse. There is a sociopath killer at large who is not only a computer genius, but an expert in finding out anything about anyone anywhere and at any time. He knows how to find anybody's weakness and knows how to exploit it. He is not going to be easy to catch but Rhyme is not someone you want to mess with. It will all come down to a battle of wills.

Deaver outdid himself when he introduced the villain of the last book in the series, COLD MOON. However, UNSUB 522 is not in the same league, being a bit underwhelming as a mastermind. The twists are few in the book and the author focuses heavily on privacy rights. At times Deaver takes the opportunity to editorialize, but there is little in the story to excite. "522" is perhaps the most predictable character throughout the entire series. The many fans of this series will be happy to see another chapter in the adventures of Lincoln Rhyme, but beyond that, there is little to rejoice in here.

Reviewed by Angel L. Soto, April 2008

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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