Scan barcode
A review by weaselweader
The Steel Kiss by Jeffery Deaver
3.0
The legs on the Lincoln Rhyme-Amelia Sachs franchise are a little wobbly in this one!
And coming from a Lincoln Rhyme über-fan going all the way back to his debut in The Bone Collector, that’s a mouthful! The forensic plot – a story of murder committed by hacking into the smart computer controllers that are ubiquitous in every day life (from escalators to microwaves, from refrigerators and baby monitors to telephones) and converting them to deadly murder weapons – is interesting but never really reaches the level of compelling. The sub-plots – Pulaski’s self-directed off-the-book undercover activities and the release of Amelia Sach’s former love interest, an ex-policeman gone bad and now released from prison – not only never reach compelling in their own right, but they actually seem intrusive and fail to contribute to moving the main plot forward in any meaningful way. For my money, they were short story fillers at best that got shoehorned into the main plot because it too was not substantial enough to fill up a full-length novel.
That leaves one looking for the good that is the reward for taking the not-so-good! And that comes in the form of a new character, Juliette Archer - a neophyte forensic science student serving as an intern to Rhyme’s mastery of the field and an incipient quadriplegic herself (she suffers from an incurable tumor with the prognosis that she will, in the near term, decline from a merely disadvantaged less than fully mobile adult woman into full quadriplegic paralysis). This, of course, makes her internship with Rhyme a lesson in both forensic science and a class in the skills and mental toughness she will need to deal with her life in a wheelchair. Suffice it to say that she is no shrinking violet and I hope we’ll see her back for a curtain call in a future Deaver novel.
It must be said that Deaver also continues his convincing mastery of the sidebar essays that inform, entertain and move the plot forward without actually turning into pure info-dumps. Let’s see – bullying, computer hacking, torts and criminal liability, and daily life as a quadriplegic (of course!).
And criticisms notwithstanding, Deaver fans will know that a slow day in a Deaver novel is still a great enjoyable read and not to be sniffed at! If you’re looking for a place to take your first dip into the Jeffery Deaver swimming pool, try The Bone Collector or The Sleeping Doll, the first novel in the Kathryn Dance series. If, like me, you’re a long-time fan … pick it up and enjoy yourself! It’s not Deaver’s best but you won’t be disappointed.
Paul Weiss
And coming from a Lincoln Rhyme über-fan going all the way back to his debut in The Bone Collector, that’s a mouthful! The forensic plot – a story of murder committed by hacking into the smart computer controllers that are ubiquitous in every day life (from escalators to microwaves, from refrigerators and baby monitors to telephones) and converting them to deadly murder weapons – is interesting but never really reaches the level of compelling. The sub-plots – Pulaski’s self-directed off-the-book undercover activities and the release of Amelia Sach’s former love interest, an ex-policeman gone bad and now released from prison – not only never reach compelling in their own right, but they actually seem intrusive and fail to contribute to moving the main plot forward in any meaningful way. For my money, they were short story fillers at best that got shoehorned into the main plot because it too was not substantial enough to fill up a full-length novel.
That leaves one looking for the good that is the reward for taking the not-so-good! And that comes in the form of a new character, Juliette Archer - a neophyte forensic science student serving as an intern to Rhyme’s mastery of the field and an incipient quadriplegic herself (she suffers from an incurable tumor with the prognosis that she will, in the near term, decline from a merely disadvantaged less than fully mobile adult woman into full quadriplegic paralysis). This, of course, makes her internship with Rhyme a lesson in both forensic science and a class in the skills and mental toughness she will need to deal with her life in a wheelchair. Suffice it to say that she is no shrinking violet and I hope we’ll see her back for a curtain call in a future Deaver novel.
It must be said that Deaver also continues his convincing mastery of the sidebar essays that inform, entertain and move the plot forward without actually turning into pure info-dumps. Let’s see – bullying, computer hacking, torts and criminal liability, and daily life as a quadriplegic (of course!).
And criticisms notwithstanding, Deaver fans will know that a slow day in a Deaver novel is still a great enjoyable read and not to be sniffed at! If you’re looking for a place to take your first dip into the Jeffery Deaver swimming pool, try The Bone Collector or The Sleeping Doll, the first novel in the Kathryn Dance series. If, like me, you’re a long-time fan … pick it up and enjoy yourself! It’s not Deaver’s best but you won’t be disappointed.
Paul Weiss