The Watchmaker's Hand

January 15, 2024
Undercooked plotting muddies Deaver’s bloated 16th thriller featuring Lincoln Rhyme (after The Midnight Lock), in which the quadriplegic NYPD detective faces off against a master criminal from his past. At the start, Rhyme is hoping to close a months-old case involving the theft of confidential records about the city’s infrastructure. The investigation takes on added urgency when someone sabotages the counterweight systems on a construction crane in Manhattan, killing one worker. After that attack, the mayor receives an email from an anonymous group called the Kommunalka Project threatening a similar disaster every 24 hours if he doesn’t create an affordable housing nonprofit and transfer a list of properties to its operations. While Rhyme races to anticipate the Kommunalka Project’s next move, evidence emerges indicating that his old adversary, a brilliant murderer known as the Watchmaker, might be pulling the strings. Deaver occasionally achieves the grandeur of the best hero-villain rematches, but too often, he takes the wind out of his sails with lazy plot contrivances, including tough to swallow lapses in judgment from the otherwise unassailable Watchmaker. Only diehard series fans need apply. Agent: Deborah Schneider, Gelfman Schneider Literary.