The Watchmaker’s Hand by Jeffery Deaver

A CITY IN TURMOIL
Looming over the Manhattan skyline, a lone crane comes crashing down into the city, sending panic radiating across New York City.

A DEADLY CONSPIRACY
The NYPD believes a political group is behind the sabotage and turns to Lincoln Rhyme for help. He knows this is just the beginning.

A RACE AGAINST TIME
Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs must race to stop further attacks before more chaos is unleashed upon the city. Watching Rhyme from the shadows is the elusive assassin The Watchmaker, and he’s preparing to strike…

I absolutely LOVE the Lincoln Rhyme series. I’ve been reading them since I first stumbled across The Bone Collector in the early 2000s, and I’ve since read the whole series – some books multiple times – as the latest instalment becomes available. Now onto the 16^th novel, I realise that it might be a bit of a commitment to start them now, although I will say that many of the books in this series are absolutely brilliant and well worth a read. Technically, they can be read as standalones as Deaver tells the reader what they need to know about the characters and their relationships, both on a personal and professional basis. Having said that, and maybe it’s just because I’ve been on that journey with them, I do feel that the reader would be missing out on some of the history and the trials that they’ve been through. With this novel in particular, The Watchmaker is a familiar adversary, first appearing in The Cold Moon (the 7^th in the series) and making some of that background more pertinent.

The Watchmaker’s Hand starts out along expected lines as an individual commits a heinous act. In this case, one of the many huge cranes operating in New York City is tampered with, causing it to tip with its load. It’s an accident that would have claimed many lives if it weren’t for the quick-thinking operator who manages to steer the crane away from nearby buildings, successfully minimising casualties. Lincoln Rhyme and Detective Amelia Sachs are then called in to investigate the crime scene, supported by their usual crew. It’s a pulse pounding opening (particularly for someone who isn’t a fan of heights!) and Deaver then keeps the tension high as the team race to avoid further incidents.

For me, this novel differed somewhat to previous instalments as Ron Pulaski – for so long dubbed the Rookie – takes more of a leading role in the forensic investigations. He’s been something of a student in this regard since quite early on the series, and so it’s only natural that he’s progressed, but I did find Sachs sidelined a little as a result. I don’t mind Ron and I’ve loved seeing him develop over the course of the series, but I adore Amelia, and so I personally found this a little disappointing. Maybe it’s to keep it fresh, or to give Amelia a break – she’s certainly earned it, particularly after inhaling some nasty chemicals at the start of this novel – but I hope that she’ll return to having a more active role in the future. She does get involved in the investigation in other ways, but I felt that her role was more minimal than I’m used to.

Rhyme is his usual abrupt and surly self throughout the novel, having little time for frivolities and social niceties. An incredibly intelligent individual, he’s come on a long way since the reader first meets him in The Bone Collector. One thing that I particularly like about this novel is the mutual respect he and The Watchmaker have for each other. As one of the few on par with him intellectually, Rhyme sees The Watchmaker as a worthy adversary, and, having encountered each other a few times now, The Watchmaker has become something of an archnemesis, although Rhyme would never lower himself by using such a term. It left me wondering throughout if this would be the novel that would see one of them emerge victorious, or whether they’d both live to fight another day. You’ll have to read it for yourself to find out.

Throughout the novel, Deaver keeps the pace and tension high. As well as the forensic investigation, we do get an insight into what the bad guys are up to, and while the destruction caused by a falling crane is a key element, there’s plenty more going on besides. To be honest, while I try to connect all of the moving parts, for the most part I just sit back and enjoy the ride. I do still miss seeing the whiteboards of evidence that were present in the earlier novels. While I can’t honestly say that they ever helped me solve a crime, I did feel like a part of the team as they review the evidence and try to identify that key piece of evidence to help them progress. I always felt as though I was in the room with them when those boards were shared with the reader.

Despite the small niggle of not having enough of my favourite character in it, The Watchmaker’s Hand is another fantastic instalment in this series. It’s fast paced and Deaver delivers his usual brilliant twists to keep the reader guessing to the end. It’s a novel (and series) that I highly recommend.