Finished 8-31-09, rating 4.5/5, mystery, pub. 2008
“But tell me if those benefits are worth somebody knowing every detail about your life. Maybe you don’t care, provided you save a few bucks. But do you really want ConsumerChoice lasers scanning your eyes in a movie theater and recording your reactions to those commercials they run before the movie? Do you want the RFID tag in your car key to be available to the police to know that you hit a hundred miles an hour last week?”
Chapter 23
This is the 8th book in the Lincoln Rhyme series
Quadriplegic forensic specialist Lincoln Rhyme is back with his most personal case to date. His cousin, Arthur, has been arrested for murder and his wife comes to Lincoln even though the two men haven’t been friends since high school. Lincoln feels the familial bond and takes a look at the case and discovers that they may be dealing with a serial killer. As Lincoln and his girlfriend, Amelia Sachs, try to prove the innocence of more than one person in prison, they become immersed in the new world of Big Brother.
SSD, Strategic Systems Datacorp, is a data mining company that specializes in knowing everything about you. No really, everything. And they do know it all. And it would not be difficult for an employee to commit awful crimes and pin them on someone else or even to steal a person’s life and destroy it piece by piece.
I loved this book. We learn more about Lincoln’s personal life than in any book since the first one and I enjoyed learning more about his childhood and family. And Amelia had her own things to deal with involving Pam, the teen from two earlier books who is now in foster care.
This book knocked it out of the park as far as scaring me to the point of paranoia. I think most people recognize that many of our individual freedoms are being stripped from us little by little, and some of us are okay with it and some of us aren’t. But this book takes it to the next level. Our whole lives are fodder for commercial gain and government dossiers. It is frightening and although this is a novel, it hits home because it is happening right now.
This book is a timely novel that will please Lincoln Rhyme fans and fans of fast paced thrillers. I loved it.
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I really must start this series. I know I keep saying that. Someday I actually will follow through.
I know this is slightly off topic, but my husband was telling me about research that’s being done on a new disorder in which people feel like they are on reality TV shows when they are not. I immediately thought of all the security cameras–the ones in the shopping areas, at the intersections, and such. I’m not sure that’s what the researchers were thinking about (I haven’t read the studies), but it got me thinking if maybe that was a part of it. I’m sure they’re probably thinking about all the TV shows on today as well.
It is amazing how easily we are being tracked. Not always in a scary ominous way, but it does seem to build itself, so where’s the end? This book will make you wonder if it’s already gone too far.
8th book in the series? From your review I gathered it’s not a standalone book. Or is it?
Not a standalone, but I think you’d enjoy it anyway. It might make you go back and read the series from the beginning.
This sounds scary in more way than one! Terrific review!
This sounds like a great series. I love thrillers.
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Yeah – what Violet said. Can I read this without having read any of the other previous books? Sounds like something I would enjoy but I’m not big into reading a slew of series.
You can read it alone, it’s probably the best stand alone aside from the first, The Bone Collector. I think once you read a Deaver thriller you’ll go back and read more.
I’ve never read anything by this author. I’ll have to give this series a try sometime, especially as I love mysteries. Thanks for the review!
I’m glad this is in my TBR pile along with THE BONE COLLECTOR. I absolutely loved Deaver’s Kathryn Dance’s books.
I’ve read two books of this series (I think), but they were out of order and I’m really excited to start at the beginning.