THE BURNING WIRE

TITLE: THE BURNING WIRE
AUTHOR: JEFFREY DEAVER
Pages: 412
Date: 31/07/2010
Grade: 5
Details: no. 9 Lincoln Rhyme
Library

It is scary how good Deaver is at taking something that is part of our every day life, something we take for granted, and turn it into a very scary murder weapon.
In this book it's New York's electrical grid that is being used by someone to kill people and hold the city and a power generation plant hostage.
During the first attack one person dies in a horrible way. But during the search for forensics, Amelia Sachs is almost killed by a booby trap set up by the perpetrator. The second and subsequent attacks kill more people and with every crime scene or location the team investigates there's the risk that something has been wired and the investigators will electrocute themselves.
At the same time Lincoln is in touch with Kathryn Dance and a police official in Mexico, on the trail of the Watchmaker, a murderer that has so far managed to avoid being arrested.
Struggling to manage two cases puts too much pressure on Lincoln and it puts his very fragile health at even more risk. But nothing is going to stop him until both cases are solved and he has the time to consider his own health and welfare.
I really enjoyed this thriller. Although not too many people actually die in this story, it's more scary than most thrillers. When you read about people shooting others it's easy to think that such a thing is unlikely to happen to you. However, electricity is such an important part of our every day life, something we take completely for granted, that it hardly ever occurs to us that it is also a deadly force when handled in the wrong way, or rigged with evil intend.
I loved the way Deaver balanced the personal stories of the main characters with the investigations. All his recurring characters have by this stage really come alive for me, and I enjoy the insights we are given into their actions, thoughts and emotions.
The author is a master at stopping the action at a crucial moment, leaving the reader guessing for a few pages before clarifying what happened and putting the readers mind at ease. Which of course also means that the reader is constantly forced to keep on turning the pages in order to find out what actually did happen.
As far as I'm concerned, Mr, Deaver can't write fast enough to keep me satisfied.