The Broken Window

A Lincoln Rhyme Novel, Book 8

By: Jeffery Deaver

Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris

Length: 14 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

Lincoln Rhyme and partner/paramour Amelia Sachs return to face a criminal whose ingenious staging of crimes is enabled by a terrifying access to information....

When Lincoln's estranged cousin Arthur Rhyme is arrested on murder charges, the case is perfect - too perfect. Forensic evidence from Arthur's home is found all over the scene of the crime, and it looks like the fate of Lincoln's relative is sealed.

At the behest of Arthur's wife, Judy, Lincoln grudgingly agrees to investigate the case. Soon Lincoln and Amelia uncover a string of similar murders and rapes with perpetrators claiming innocence and ignorance - despite ironclad evidence at the scenes of the crime. Rhyme's team realizes this "perfect" evidence may actually be the result of masterful identity theft and manipulation.

An information service company - the huge data miner Strategic Systems Datacorp - seems to have all the answers but is reluctant to help the police. Still, Rhyme and Sachs and their assembled team begin uncovering a chilling pattern of vicious crimes and coverups, and their investigation points to one master criminal, whom they dub "522".

When "522" learns the identities of the crime-fighting team, the hunters become the hunted. Full of Deaver's trademark plot twists, The Broken Window will put the partnership of Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs to the ultimate test.

©2008 Jeffrey Deaver (P)2008 Simon and Schuster, Inc.

Easy listening, but good mystery. A great ‘who’s who

Great narration, Great story line
What will the culprit do next , a real cliff hanger

Identities Run Amok

I thoroughly enjoyed this thriller and if you believe "big brother" is watching you'll find it even scarier than a typical murder mystery/whodunnit. Lincoln Rhyme and partner Amelia Sachs are trying to find "God", or at least a God-impersonator who appears to know everything about everyone, who also happens to be on a killing spree. They investigate a data mining company and find that indeed, there is a wealth of knowledge available about individual citizens that would enable other individual citizens to impersonate God if they got their hands on it. Hmmmm.... Quite a dilemma, who to trust? Especially, when "God" can cause a person's life to fall apart with a few keystrokes on a computer. Kept me listening. Hard to put down.

One of the best I've read lately

GREAT book! Somewhat repetitive in places but that is his style to summarize things in the investigations Lincoln Rhyme does. EVERYONE should read this book as the topic is fascinating, well written, well read, and should scare the hell out of you. The implications of the technology discussed are real and scary. The storyline may be fiction but everything else (scarily enough) is real-life governmental terrorism.

Awesome Read

I am new world of Lincoln Rhymes and I could not get enough of this book. I kept looking for times when I could turn on my iPod.

A real page turner thriller!

I really enjoyed this book and I am a new Lincoln Childs fan!!! From page one, it grabbed me in and did not let go!

following the same formula...

it's the same formula, but it's a nice diversion. the characters are familiar and there isn't much d development, and figuring out who the killer was probably isn't possible based on how the story was told, but I enjoyed listening

Absolutely great books

I'm loving all these books the series is absolutely great Can't wait to start the next one

Good but not the best

The Broken Window was an interesting story but not the best of the Lincoln Rhyme novels. The revisiting of the crime scene data can be wearing but makes sense. However, a full chapter on the list of data categories and subcategories was a bit over the top. For me, this was the point where I lost interest in the theme and sub-themes of the story. Nonetheless, the book is worth reading.

Window Not Broken

This is a great read, my first encounter with Jeffery Deaver and Lincoln Rhyme. I love all the high-tech detail, the switching to the perp's voice, and the inventive insight into the life of Lincoln Rhyme.

For the person who didn't get the concept of "broken window", there are numerous window references and situations throughout the book but basically IMO the idea refers to the technological window through which all our personal info is available to anyone crafty and persistent enough to access it.

It's no surprise to me that for this book there is an over-100-people waiting list at the library.

thoughts

The story spends too much time reading lists. Other than that it is good unless you are sensitive about your personal data.