The Watchmaker’s Hand is the sixteenth book in the Lincoln Rhyme series by award-winning best-selling American author, Jeffery Deaver. A crane collapse on a Manhattan construction site, that claims only a few casualties thanks to the quick thinking of the operator, is deemed sabotage.

Lincoln Rhyme sends Amelia Sachs to run the scene, which turns out to be much more dangerous than anticipated, and sees her trailing an oxygen canister for some time afterwards. Responsibility is claimed by a group demanding that New York City immediately release a number of vacant properties for affordable housing, or there will be a repeat in twenty-four hours.

Meanwhile, Patrolman Ron Pulaski runs the murder scene of a stock broker so expertly that he uncovers the involvement of an Irish specialist bombmaker. When he then applies the skills he as learned from Rhyme to the murder scene of an NYPD detective, the perpetrator is a surprise to everyone except Rhyme. Nor is Rhyme convinced by the apparent motive for the crane sabotage.

The case requires examination from many angles, and Rhyme even deigns to consider motive. There’s quite a bit more cat-and-mouse, a few false trails and two more cranes come down before the perpetrator is finally caught.

Ron Pulaski becomes the target of a vindictive media-hogging superior; Amelia’s stint in the delivery suite is laugh-out-loud funny; there’s a kidnapping with an unusual ransom attached; and while they are unbelievably fast with their lab testing, it seems to take the team far too long to deduce the delivery method for the sabotage.

There are crooked cops and corrupt politicians; there are novel methods used to bring down cranes; there’s an old nemesis with a complicated plan to take out Rhyme that results in a new enemy for the trace evidence expert. There are twists and diversions and surprises: classic Deaver.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Harper Collins UK