The Burning Wire

By: Jeffery Deaver

Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris

Length: 13 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's Summary

Lincoln Rhyme is back, on the trail of a killer whose weapon of choice cripples New York City with fear.

The weapon is invisible and omnipresent. Without it, modern society grinds to a halt. It is electricity. The killer harnesses and steers huge arc flashes with voltage so high and heat so searing that steel melts and his victims are set afire.

When the first explosion occurs in broad daylight, reducing a city bus to a pile of molten, shrapnel-riddled metal, officials fear terrorism. Rhyme, a world-class forensic criminologist known for his successful apprehension of the most devious criminals, is immediately tapped for the investigation. Long a quadriplegic, he assembles NYPD detective Amelia Sachs and officer Ron Pulaski as his eyes, ears and legs on crime sites, and FBI agent Fred Dellray as his undercover man on the street. As the attacks continue across the city at a sickening pace, and terrifying demand letters begin appearing, the team works desperately against time and with maddeningly little forensic evidence to try to find the killer. Or is it killers?

Meanwhile, Rhyme is consulting on another high-profile investigation in Mexico with a most coveted quarry in his crosshairs: the hired killer known as the Watchmaker, one of the few criminals to have eluded Rhymes net.

Juggling two massive investigations against a cruel ticking clock takes a toll on Rhymes health. Soon Rhyme is fighting on yet another front - and his determination to work despite his physical limitations threatens to drive away his closest allies when he needs them most.

Solve another case with Lincoln Rhyme.

©2010 Jeffery Deaver (P)2010 Simon & Schuster

I love Lincoln Rhyme but...

I love Jeffery Deaver and was excited to listen to The Burning Wire. I don't know whether it was "listening" to the lists (which are always a part of the LIncoln Rhyme books) instead of "reading" them or whether the story itself just didn't work for me. In any case, I didn't make it all the way through this production and will pick up the book in hard copy so that I can finish it properly.

10 of 10 people found this review helpful

A good read

I like Jeffery Deaver and enjoyed this book. However I agree that the narration wasn't the best. I would download it again but not put it on my list of favorites.

10 of 10 people found this review helpful

Good book; disappointing narration

I'm always enthusiastic when a new Deaver book is released. Unfortunately, Dennis Boutsikaris doesn't share my enthusiasm. More often than not, he doesn't even bother to pronounce the hero's name right - Rhyme is often pronounced "Rahm"(like the Chief of Staff) making scenes with "Ron the recruit" difficult to distinguish. And this narrator doesn't worry about making any effort with voice timbre or even accents, so often there are several characters in a scene speaking with the same voice. Very lazy work.
The book is a four-star winner with some very creepy moments and Deaver's mastery of suspense is in evidence. I'll be thinking twice before I plug anything in. But the final moments are very positive and hopefully will lead to more Rhyme books - just not ones read by Boutsikaris.

40 of 43 people found this review helpful

boring

while the plot is interesting, the reader sounds unenthusiastic and boring.

8 of 8 people found this review helpful

Not his best

The main characters are the same and the crime scenes are similar to other Rhyme and Sax novels. It was just more of the same. I didn't find it that interesting, in fact I stopped listening after part 1 and started another book. It's not terrible but there's really nothing unexpected either. Your choice whether of not to burn a credit on this one.

6 of 6 people found this review helpful

Not up to usual snuff

The Lincoln Rhyme series was one of the first I got hooked on four years ago when I began listening to books through Audible. It wouldn't have happened if The Burning Wire was the first offering. The Cold Moon, The Twelfth Card, The Vanished Man all had antagonists who were very evil and posed quite a challenge to Rhyme. The bad guys in The Burning Wire were very forgettable. And Amelia Sachs seemed to be an afterthought in this installment. If it weren't for some intrigue with Ron Pulaski, all of Rhyme's supporting cast would have played very minor roles. I was hoping that Deaver's The Broken Window was an anomaly, but apparently not. And if he thinks the tease at the end will have me salivating for the next installment, he guessed wrong. If I didn't know better, I would have thought someone else wrote this book. Not terrible, but not good either.

7 of 8 people found this review helpful

No go -- a shock to the system

Slow going ---

6 of 7 people found this review helpful

pior to finishing/ review

nomally would have finished book in 2 days but now on 5th day and half done.I got lost at missing tooth on hacksaw! give me a break! also as with other authors the new style seems to be for the hero to be as nasty with those around him as possible. I don't think anyone would put up with Linc's attitude. Also dont care for reader's style. Maybe another review when I finish the book.

9 of 11 people found this review helpful

hang in til the 2nd part

If you're into technical stuff about how electricity works, you'll enjoy the first part of this book. If not, be prepared. It wasn't until the 2nd part that I really started enjoying it like the previous Lincoln Rhyme stories. Eventually it was worth the credit, but I had a hard time hanging in there.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

The Burning Wire

The last two books that I have read by Jeffrey Deaver has just been a bunch of words describing whatever. I believe that he is making the book longer by using a bunch of acronyms and then saying what they stand for. He then makes the book even longer by repeating the clues over and over, your readers are not stupid, we got the evidence or clues the first fives that they were listed, why do you keep saying 1.-------- 2 -------- and so on and so on. Just like the last book I was unable to finish this one, I got to the fourth CD and could not go any further (I do audio books). WHAT HAPPENED, YOU'RE SUCH A WONDERFUL AUTHOR-IS SOMEONE ELSE WRITING YOUR NOVELS FOR YOU. I only rated the book one star because I couldn't do less. But the good thing about what I did read is that I now know a lot more about electricity.

5 of 6 people found this review helpful