The Broken Window: A Lincoln Rhyme Novel (Lincoln Rhyme Novels)

The book was great. A little frightening to think how much personal information is available. Book was delivered quickly and in good condition.

I look forward to Lincoln Rhyme novels, so I was happy when my number finally came up at the library for Jeffrey Deaver's The Broken Window. As a technology geek, I *really* got into this story line. I'll grant that there was some level of "literary licence" taken in the plot, but it's still an unsettling look at what's going on with data mining and personal privacy.

Rhyme, the quadriplegic genius who takes forensic crime science to a new level, gets involved in a new case that's personal. His cousin Arthur is accused of a murder that he swears he didn't commit. The evidence begs to differ, however. Everything at the crime scene and in Arthur's personal life points in exacting detail to his involvement. There's some bad blood between Rhyme and his cousin, and he's not all too keen on getting involved in what appears to be an open-and-shut case. But he softens a bit and decides to ask a couple of questions. What he finds is that the evidence is *too* perfect... almost as if everything was staged to the nth degree. He's also able to find a few other murder cases that share the same "perfectness", despite the protests of the accused. The investigation leads to a data mining company, Strategic Systems Datacorp, who has a seemingly infinite amount of information on nearly everyone in the US. But their operation is shrouded in secrecy, and too many people seem to be deathly afraid of crossing swords with them. If someone at the company had detailed information about what the victims and accused bought, where they went, and what they did, they *could* create perfect crimes. Rhyme and his partner Amelia Sachs have to determine who at the company had means and motive. But if the hunted has all of Rhyme's information, just who is the hunted and who is the hunter?

I liked this on a couple of different levels. From pure story and plot, I had a hard time putting down the book. The identity of the killer stays nebulous for a large part of the book, so the suspense stays at a pretty high level. The other facet of the story is the whole issue of data mining and personal privacy. If all the information that's collected about you is gathered in a single place, your life literally becomes an open book. Not only do they know everything about you, but they can start to predict what you might and might not do with surprising accuracy. I think you can draw the inference to today's society. While it's true (I hope) that an actual Strategic Systems Datacorp doesn't exist, it's no longer outside the realm of possibility. This is a very good thriller with some interesting concepts to mull over.

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.

I won't give away anything. But I will say if you are at all concerned about living on the grid read this book. Will totally open your eyes. And of course, I was kept guessing until the end. Which is a great thing.

I could not put this book down - lost a whole weekend! One of the best of the series.