Rex’s reviews of anything (but mostly books)

Ever wondered just how many gigabytes of data about your life are stashed away in a gazillion different places out there? Your credit card purchases alone could tell where you’ve been and what you did while you were there. “Loyalty cards” – those cards from Safeway, Kroger, or CVS on your key chain – can tell someone exactly what you’ve bought and when you bought it; maybe even let someone guess what’s going on in your life. Say a twenty-something suddenly starts buying a pint of Haagen-Dazs every night on her way home from work: could it mean she’s just broken up with her lover?

Worse, a sufficiently well-informed snooper could use that information, combine it with bits and pieces from other databases, and ferret out your best-kept secrets; maybe even predict what you’re going to do next. When you think about this kind of access, it’s… it’s downright scary! And Jeffery Deaver knows it… which is why sifting through our personal data is at the core of the plot of Lincoln Rhyme novel number eight, The Broken Window.

The case looks to be open and shut: all the forensic evidence points to a single suspect, and a 911 call places the man’s car near the scene of the brutal murder. The only problem is that the suspect swears he’s innocent (but don’t they all?); that, and the man’s name is Arthur Rhyme. Yes, he’s a cousin of famed forensic scientist Lincoln Rhyme. Could there be anyone better to have in your corner at a time like this? (That’s a rhetorical question, of course). Contrary to Rhyme’s most sacred axiom, however; this time the forensic evidence might not be telling the truth – if someone out there knows how to make it lie, of course.

Their unknown suspect, dubbed “522″ after his latest crime was committed on May 22nd, might just be the closest thing to God that Rhyme and his team (Sachs, Cooper, Selitto, and Pulaski) have ever encountered. Unfettered access to enormous volumes of data makes him well nigh omniscient, which in turn makes him pretty much omnipotent – knowledge is power, after all. An all-knowing, all-powerful opponent; a data miner with access to unimaginable quantities of personal data – updated in real time, of course – is not only every privacy advocate’s nightmare; it’s every cop’s nightmare as well. 522 has the power to make Rhyme’s life, and those of everyone around him, a living hell. He’s already done precisely that to Art Rhyme, and he shows no signs of stopping.

Rhyme and his team are up against a wily enemy, one who has the tools to divert their investigation however he might choose. They’ve already let the Clockmaker slip away; will 522 be able to thumb his nose at them as well? Or will perseverance and logic win the day? Stay tuned.

Eight novels into the Lincoln Rhyme series, Jeffery Deaver shows no sign of slipping in a series that’s consistently smart and always exciting. As in previous novels such as The Bone Collector and The Devil’s Teardrop, his work combines painstaking research into arcane subjects with timely and topical plots. For an examination of the chief peril of Age of Information, Deaver has concocted a villain whose modus operandi involves that which privacy advocates fear most; malicious access to and subsequent misuse of the vast stores of data stored in a million data banks around the world. Kudos to Deaver for a highly accessible, albeit fictional, “exposé” of the potential perils of giant databases, databases like John Poindexter’s partially-dismantled TIA.

More to the point, however; even as he’s educating his readers about the worlds of data mining and identity theft, Deaver still succeeds in putting out a first-rate thriller. He does so because his characters are appealing – even the often stiff and somber Rhyme receives an unusual humanizing touch from the back-story of his relationship to cousin Arthur (although Deaver’s editor screwed up there – the University of Illinois is not in “Champagne-Urbana”). The Sachs-Rhyme relationship builds (readers even get a glimpse or two of the couple alone) and the “rookie” Pulaski also continues to grow. The team even brings in “tame” hacker from the cop shop, a hairy gent with a caffeine jones and a habit of saying, “Heh” (sound like anyone you know?). Even Rhyme’s well-oiled machine, though, can fall prey to the not-so-tender ministrations of 522!

Above all, Deaver has written a top-notch thriller , replete with his trademark neck-snapping plot twists that leave readers muttering to themselves, “Now why didn’t I see that?” In keeping with the tradition of the Rhyme novels, The Broken Window is tightly plotted and chock-full of suspense; a work that manages to both entertain and educate at the same time. And where once upon a time the thought of monsters and dragons might have found young readers staring wide-eyed at their bedroom ceilings at night, Deaver’s latest villain is most assuredly the same kind of bugaboo for adults. Beware 522 and rogue data miners!

Buy The Broken Window at amazon.com

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