Krishna
We have reviewed several of this author’s books, with different central characters. For example of a book centered on Kathryn Dance, see The Sleeping Doll. For the last Lincoln Rhyme book (the hero of this book), please refer to The Kill Room.
Chloe Moore is working in a retail fashion store. She is an out of work actress. She goes down to collect some clothes from underground storage and hears some dripping water. She goes to investigate and hesitates. For a bit too long. The man with the mask appears and grabs her. Stuffs a cloth into her mouth.
She realizes she has been drugged with a hypodermic needle and cannot even resist any more. If she is expecting a rape, it does not happen. Billy Haven, the kidnapper is a tattoo artist.
Lincoln Rhymes is visited by Lon Selitto who tells him that the victim was Chloe and she died of being tattooed by poisoned ink. The message was part of a poem, signaling to Lincoln that he is planning surely more victims even if only to finish the message. Amelia goes to the scene to walk the scene and Ron Pulaski (“the rookie” if you have read the earlier books) is asked to go incognito to the funeral.
Meanwhile Amelia goes to collect evidence from Chloe. She finds scalloped design around the word tattooed – exquisitely in calligraphy letters – ‘the second’. And focuses despite her claustrophobia in the narrow tunnel where the victim lay. She finds a flashlight between the pipes.
Meanwhile Pam, the ‘semi’ daughter of Amelia says she is going to leave her studies and travel with her new boyfriend for a year and when Amelia tries to stop her, gets angry, reminds Amelia that ‘she is not her mother’ and storms out.
Billy Haven has read a book about Rhymes and studies his techniques so that he can stay one step ahead of the famous detective. Rhymes figures out which book and which chapter it is from a fragment torn by Chloe while she was being murdered. Also he understands the perp’s obsession with the bone collector’s methods and also his obsession with ‘skin’ of the victims.
Billy goes to the hospital and is contemplating taking down another victim when he is covered by Amelia. Only his quick thinking of taking a hostage (original intended victim) and the unexpected intervention of an orderly let him get away. Billy Haven wonders how the incredible Rhymes managed to get to the place.
The next victim is also in the tunnels underground. She is Samantha Levine who was captured in the women’s bathroom of a club and tattooed ‘Forty’. Her purse was left there with a very thin hypodermic needle spiked with anthrax to ‘get Amelia’ but they spotted it on time.
From a tattoo parlour expert who is so shocked that someone would use poison to kill through tattoos, they learn that the needle is of a special type. Don Selitto catches up with a tattoo artist who remembers a nondescript man buying them, and then answering the phone to say Belvedere.
The cat and mouse game begins. They try to reach all places (thirty two! But likely ones are fewer) with underground tunnel fits.
Meanwhile, Braden Alexander is going back to the garage after a good workout but is waylaid by a stranger in a latex mask on the face, drugged with a needle and dragged to the basement. However, as Brady (and yes, it was he) could more than feel Braden’s skin, he hears the words Belvedere in the police band radio, panics and floods the basement to destroy all evidence. However, Braden is alive and confused.
Lon Selitto was poisoned by a brazen Brady, dressed as a fireman and offering coffee. Amelia refused it but Lon took one and had to be hospitalized for poisoning.
Meanwhile Ron Pulaski goes undercover to the watchmaker’s funeral and gets trapped by some tough men. He has no chance to reach his hidden gun but it turns out well. I think this whole obsession about the Watchmaker is a big distraction that Deaver is unable to let go.
But TJ, a tattoo artist who is an expert and has consulted with Lincoln is targeted by Billy Haven.
He was out but an employee called Beaufort in the parlour was targeted and died.
Now Billy is ready to do his ultimate trick. The woman in the hospital who was the decoy when Amelia confronted Billy was really his aunt and she was in on the gang thing. Billy had just gone to see his uncle who was in the hospital when Amelia turned up unexpected. She gave Amelia a totally wrong description of a man with a round face, mostly Salvic so Russian or Central European to lead them off. She was also having sex with Billy the nephew, behind Matthew’s back. They both were hoping Mattehew Stanton would die.
Meanwhile Billy has gone to poison New York’s main waterline with Botulism and when he sees the news that the water has been shut down due to terrorist bombs, his cover, he drills a pipe and the water pressure, sharp as a knife, kills him instantly.
Rhyme finds out the family. Matthew, his wife and the son live in a hotel and arrest them all.
Meanwhile there is a tremendous twist! Pam finds out that her boyfriend, with whom she was planning to quit college and go on a world trip, was not at all who she thought. He makes a slip and gets exposed. He captures her briefly and she is terrified of what is about to happen to her.
He tells her that he knew her when she was a girl as her parents (who were in an antisocial cult) and his parents (in another cult) were trying to merge their groups and agreed that he marry Pam. He now felt that he had been cheated out of his birthright and disguised as Pete, became her boyfriend.
Finally, and as is the case in these novels, she is saved after she causes severe damage to Pete with the help of police who come in.
In fact, there is a parallel strand where the Watchmaker (from more than one previous book) dies and his ash is about to be collected by a lawyer friend. Ron Pulaski goes undercover to see if anyone would turn up but gets arrested briefly as a bad guy who knew the Watchmaker. I was annoyed for two reasons : first, the inability of the author to let go of the supervillain from earlier novels even when he was dead. And second for thinking of an eternal rivalry between Rhyme and the Watchmaker like Moriarty for Holmes.
But the Watchmaker connection is stronger here than a passing reference and comes in handy for a twist.
Even so, even slightly mollified, my two pet peeves still persist.
All in all, another solid thriller with multiple twists delivered in true Deaver style. Entertaining.
7/10
— Krishna