The Burning Wire Review

The Burning Wire (Lincoln Rhyme 9)

-       Jeffery Deaver

Publisher: UK- Hodder

When an attack is made on Manhattan's electricity grid, it seems that terrorists must be responsible. What better way to hold New York to ransom than to manipulate the city's power supply? While the FBI and CIA try to determine whether religious or environmental fundamentalists are behind the attacks, Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs race to decode the forensics in order to prevent the next assault on the grid. Because electricity is more than simply power keeping the city alive - it is as lethal as it is vital, and Lincoln Rhyme is up against the most terrifying killer he has ever encountered - a killer who who can turn everyday life into certain death...

Lincoln Rhyme is the original Grissom. Back before CSI New York, long before Hoartio put on his first pair of sunglasses and before Vegas had such a strong crime resolution rate, Jeffery Deaver wrote the first Lincoln Rhyme book – The Bone Collector, about a paraplegic forensic analyst who can solve crime just by studying the evidence. Using a former model, turned cop, Amelia Sachs as his legs and eyes on the scene he is able to pin point future action from the smallest of crumbs, the tiniest splat of mud and the hint of perfume in the air.

The Burning Wire is the ninth in the series and is has complex and intriguing as ever. However, as the perpetrator this time is killing with electricity the first half of the book feels a little like a text book as Jeffery Deaver attempts to explain ‘juice’ to us. Various methods of death by electricity are gruesome to read and have a cinematic feel to them – but getting to the understanding behind them felt a little like hard work at times. However, this is balanced by the paranoia the usually confident Amelia displays – how do you protect yourself from some as invisible as electricity – especially when it is around us all the time? This humanising element is something that balances out the cold science – and the reason why I keep reading!

For me the joy of these books is never being able to figure out who done it – because this isn’t an investigate about the motives but the journey of how to narrow down and capture the suspect. Lincoln is not a very sympathetic character – although he is intelligent and professional. After eight books I never concerned myself about his disability anymore, so I was concerned when his former suicidal ideas seem to resurface here. It’s not Lincoln that keeps me coming back but Amelia, Fred Dellaware and Ron Pulaski who are more relatable and human. I still enjoyed the journey here even if it felt a little harder than previously to get my head around electricity. An intelligent thriller for those you like a little challenge in their crime novels.

Recommended for fans of CSI and Kathy Reichs. 7 out of 10.