Once again, Deaver delivers a thrilling, unflinching roundhouse kick to the stomach read. Intelligent and packed full of turns that come out of nowhere. I've been a fan since I read The Stone Monkey, Lincoln Rhyme is an absolute blast of a character. The Watchmakers Hand is no exception, Deaver knows how to keep the pages flipping.

When a New York City construction crane mysteriously collapses, causing mass destruction and injury, Rhyme and Sachs are on the case. A political group claims responsibility for the sabotage and threatens another attack in twenty-four hours, unless its demands are met. The clock is ticking. Then a clue reveals to Rhyme that his nemesis, known as the Watchmaker, has come to town to fulfill his promise of murdering the criminalist. Now Rhyme and Sachs have to dodge his brilliant scheme to destroy them both, while racing against time to stop the construction site terrorists. With New York in a panic, Rhyme and his team must unravel a handful of plots as tightly wound as a timepiece—before more cranes fall, raining down death and destruction from above. The Watchmaker is back and Rhyme has his work cut out for him. As with all the books in this this one was completely engrossing and kept me up all night until the end. This will not really read well as a standalone because knowing the backstory here is important but I highly recommend this book!

Thank you NrtGalley for this advance readers copy in exchange for my free and honest review. What a masterpiece by Jeffery Deaver with the awesome Lincoln Rhyme. Absolutely thrilling novel that kept me jumping from page to,page to find,out the next surprise. The best thing about Deaver is he takes his stories all the way to the end and further. Fantastic read!

I'm a huge Lincoln Rhymes fan, but something about this book made me feel like I was trudging through it. But I love Rhymes and Amelia and I would read any Jeffery Deaver book he puts out.

Jeffrey Deaver's Lincoln Rhyme books are extremely predictable in format - which is lovely, like sinking into a comfortable bed with a book on a dreary day. You know what you're going to get, which in this case means cliffhangers, red herrings all over the place, and characters you've known and loved for decades.

In this edition, the Watchmaker is back and he's out for revenge on his nemesis. Will he get it? Read to find out.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

I have read just about every Lincoln Rhyme novel, this one wasn’t my favorite. It was still a good novel and a great forensic take on a detective novel. I just couldn’t get into this one. I think that is more me and less about the quality of the book, as all his novels are great! I would still check this out if you want a forensic novel!

Another hit in this crime thriller series.

Lincoln Rhyme and his wife, Amelia Sacha, along with their cohort are tasked with finding and stopping a domestic terrorist who is holding New York City hostage. One by one the big construction cranes are sabotaged and come crashing down. Though a group that claims it wants the city to provide more affordable housing takes responsibility for the disasters, Rhyme knows that there is much more going on. He soon finds that he is once again facing his old nemesis, The Watchmaker, and that his enemy is there to kill him.

Intricate plotting and lots of scientific information fill the pages of this fast moving installment, the 16th in a long running series. The characters are all quite interesting, even the bad guys, and the shifting situations keep the reader on point to keep track of what is happening. The writing is excellent and the twists and complicated narrative kept me thinking and guessing. I definitely don’t think this works as a standalone as the backstory of the characters and how they all come to be working together is fascinating and shouldn’t be missed. I love all the details and descriptions of the forensics, chemistry, watchmaking — there is always a lot to learn in a Deaver book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this e-book ARC to read, review, and recommend.

Lincoln Rhyme is on the case again, along with his wife , Amelia Sachs and his skills are put to the test as cranes far atop buildings are being toppled onto unsuspecting victims. These huge cranes can cause massive damage and so finding what the culprit wants or where they might strike again is of critical importance.
After quite a bit of effort, the Rhymes team finds that it may not actually be an activist group. Perhaps it is the Watchmaker.
But what does he want? Has he finally outplayed Lincoln?
Terrific read. I highly recommend.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me this ARC.

Always appreciate Deaver's stories with Lincoln and Amelia. Another great one with some solid twists! Appreciate the NYC setting.

This is definitely one of this very talented authors books. It's filled with trepidation, suspense and danger. The story unfolds at a rapid pace and soon you are turning the pages as fast as you can trying to find out what happens to our mc. I thought this book was very exciting. I couldn't put it down. I really recommend this book.

As Lincoln and his team try to get to the bottom of a construction “accident” they discover that there is a lot more going on, and an old enemy may be behind it.

The plot is complicated, full of technical details, with many twists and turns.

I enjoyed this Lincoln Rhyme mystery.. I have not read the entire series, but that was not an issue. This book can easily stand alone.

Thank you to Netgalley, Jeffery Deaver, and Penguin Group Putnam, G.P. Putnam's Sons for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I worry that there will come a time when Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs will be done. Fortunately for us, this novel was not it. Deaver keeps you on your toes and introduces new characters while bringing back old adversaries.

Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons on November 28, 2023

The Watchmaker has been a recurring villain in recent Lincoln Rhyme novels. The last novel suggested that the Watchmaker would soon return to seek revenge against Rhyme. His attempt is one of several plot threads that make The Watchmaker’s Hand one of stronger entries in this entertaining series.

Rhyme is a forensic scientist confined to a wheelchair. He works as a consultant for New York law enforcement with the assistance of Amelia Sachs, his NYPD wife. She collects evidence from crime scenes, as does NYPD patrol officer Ron Pulaski. Detective Lon Siletto, Rhyme’s former partner and a senior officer in Major Cases, is Rhyme’s principal contact within NYPD. Lyle Spencer purports to be a human lie detector, relying on the pseudo-science of kinesic analysis. Rhyme's caregiver, Thom Reston, helps out with research and odd jobs when he isn’t feeding all the members of Rhyme’s team. Series fans might be happy to know that all the supporting cast members play significant roles in The Watchmaker’s Hand.

The novel begins with a crane collapse and the heroic effort of the crane operator to prevent the machine from crashing into a densely populated office building. The collapse is followed by a demand from a previously unknown terrorist organization to deed certain city properties to a nonprofit corporation for conversion into low-income housing. Since housing advocates do not see mass murder as the best means to their end, Rhyme knows that the demand is meant to divert attention from its real purpose. Figuring out what that purpose might be is the novel’s central mystery, one that has Rhyme and his team chasing theories to unproductive destinations.

Other key events involve the unsolved theft of New York City infrastructure documents, including maps of tunnels and engineering plans for buildings; a police detective who spies on Rhyme; a car accident that leads to the loss of Pulaski’s badge; two politicians who are running for Congress; and a potential plot to assassinate the president. While these events seem to be unrelated, fans of the series will count on Jeffery Deaver to create an intricate plot that links them together. After unpeeling layers of deception, Rhyme will eventually arrive at the core of the scheme. It is no spoiler to suggest that the Watchmaker will be instrumental, but the real mystery is the identity of the criminal who hired the Watchmaker.

The plot is no more farfetched than most modern crime novels and, unlike many, it holds together. Deaver builds in multiple scenes of rapid action that turn a mystery into a thriller. Whether Rhyme will prevail against the Watchmaker is never much in doubt. The only question is how Rhyme will manage to survive. In the end, a new villain emerges (Rhyme calls this one the Engineer) who will likely appear in a future novel to bedevil the lives of Rhyme and his friends.

The characters are all true to the personalities they have developed over the course of the series. This novel is notable for developing the personality of the Watchmaker and, to a lesser extent, the Engineer. They become characters the reader can understand without cheering for their success. Rhyme’s forensic wizardry is always entertaining and sounds plausible (my knowledge of chemistry and geology is insufficient to make me a credible fact checker). On the whole, the excitement factor in The Watchmaker’s Hand and the strength of the plot make this installment one of my favorites in the series.

RECOMMENDED

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced digital copy of this book.

Lincoln Rhyme is without doubt one of the best detectives in books today. And he does it all without leafing his apartment - or his wheelchair, where he has been confined for many years. But he has a crack team that works with him and believes in his abilities, as does the NYPD, for whom he consults.

So when a huge construction crane, one of many looming over New York City, inexplicably overcomes all the built-in safety devices and tumbles to the ground, Rhyme is the first person on everyone's mind to solve the problem. Because it is immediately obvious the cranes systems have been tampered with and using a terrible weapon to do it. A group purporting to be working for more housing for the poor claims responsibility, but the group has never been active before, and their claims seem unlikely.

Then Rhyme's group learns that The Watchmaker, a long-time foe of theirs, is reportedly in NYC to finally kill Rhyme and get rid of his interferences. More cranes come down, more plots are discovered, and several red herrings are uncovered before the group finally gets to the bottom of what is actually going on.

4.5 stars, actually.

One of the most daunting aspects of writing books in a series, it seems to me, is that the characters tend to become like old friends to readers - which is great, of course - but also readers who come to expect that each new installment will be at least as good - perhaps even better - than the last. To be sure, I couldn't wait to get my hands on this, the 16th featuring consulting forensic scientist Lincoln Rhymes and his now wife, NYPD detective Amelia Sachs. And make no mistake: it is very good - I stayed up 45 minutes past my bedtime to finish it, for gosh sake. But the abundance of technical "stuff" was a bit overwhelming, and for whatever reason, I didn't feel as much of a "connection" between Lincoln and Amelia this time out.

That technical part centers around construction cranes and the horrifying repercussions when they go beserk. Now I'm very familiar (or so I thought) with cranes, but it became clear early on that I had no idea what a "tower crane" is (I finally opted for a search engine to see what they look like, and yes, I've seen them). Neither Lincoln nor Amelia seemed to have their hearts into their relationship (even Thom Reston, caregiver of Lincoln, a paraplegic, lacked his usually spicy banter with Lincoln). On the other hand, the story did bring back a couple of unsavory nemeses from past books as well as actions/interactions of much-liked colleagues like Lincoln's former partner Lon Sellitto and colleague Ron Pulaski.

This one begins as a tower crane at a project in downtown Manhattan inexplicably becomes unstable, dropping 36,000 pounds of 6 foot by 4 foot flange beams and counterweights that, thanks to quick actions by the operator, kill just one human and injure only a handful. Shortly thereafter comes a demand from the perpetrator that promises a drop of even bigger proportions if that demand is not met within 24 hours. At that point, of course, the clock starts ticking (heads up, longtime fans) and Lincoln and Amelia switch to action mode.

From that point on, the action is pretty much nonstop; needless to say, the goings-on put just about everyone in danger and few events are what they seem to be. It puts all of Lincoln's vast knowledge to the test, tests the resilience of everyone on the team showed me that I'm able to sit on the edge of my seat a lot longer than I'd have predicted. All told, another good one - and I heartily thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for allowing me to read and review it.

The Watchmaker’s Hand By Jeffery Deaver is the penultimate police procedural. Lincoln Rhyme has a crew that is beyond professional as well as brilliant. Someone had caused a huge crane to fall off the top of a building. The operator had managed to steer it down a street and end up in a park, which had been evacuated. There had been only one death, a disappointment to the person who had caused it to topple. Lincoln and his crew were on it immediately and what they found confounded him. At this point he was relegated to reviewing videos from the job site and the neighborhood but because of this he was able to ascertain a major clue which led to many more clues and eventually the unknown suspect himself and the one who paid him. It this point it was a terror group wanting more affordable housing (odd?) and asking for something that would take weeks, if not months to accomplish. They had been given twenty-four hours.

Lincoln Rhyme is an ex-police captain who is now a quadriplegic and has control over his head and one finger on this left hand. HIs right arm is also functional but only through surgery and technology. That has not slowed him down. His wife, Amelia is part of his team and still a police officer, and Thom, his caregiver, never a police officer, but still a huge part of the team. They are all monumental characters, well-developed through the years by Deaver. The plot is complicated and convoluted, put together by several masterminds but ripped to shreds by Rhyme. This series, this book, as well as showing the indomitability of the human spirit, also reminds us of the capability of the unleashed human mind. Kept me awake, for certain. Another great read by Jeffery Deaver.

I was invited to read a free e-ARC of The Watchmaker’s Hand by the Penguin Group Putnam, through Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are mine. #Netgalley #PenguinGroupPutnam #JefferyDeaver #TheWatchmakersHand

In New York where construction is always happening and massive cranes are everywhere, a deadly crane collapse and the threat of more in the future means Lincoln and Amelia are back on the job. And it’s not long before Lincoln realizes he’s up against his old nemesis, The Watchmaker. This is the 16th book in the Lincoln Rhyme series and I think the fourth or fifth to feature The Watchmaker. While I suppose it’s possible to read this one without having read any of the others, I definitely think you’re better off reading the previous books first, not only because it’s such a fantastic series bit also so you have a greater knowledge of the characters and of Lincoln’s previous run-ins with The Watchmaker. This is a wonderfully twisting tale that kept me glued to the book. I just love these books. Jeffery Deaver has crafted such an incredible series of thrillers and Lincoln is such an amazing character you won’t regret it. I’d like to thank PENGUIN GROUP Putnam and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an eARC of The Watchmaker’s Hand.

https://www.amazon.com/review/R1F3YDZ1G4TF7P/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

Thanks to Penguin/Putnam, NetGalley, and Jeffery Deaver for the chance to review an advance copy of this book. I have been a fan of the Lincoln Rhyme series since Bone Collector came out and with this newest release Lincoln is better than ever. Lincoln, Amelia Sachs, Ron Pulaski and the rest of their team are kept on their toes when a person starts attacking construction sites around New York. Things quickly heat up when they discover the bomber is one of Lincoln’s most dangerous enemies—the Watchmaker. He has a plan in place to get to Lincoln but only if he can eliminate certain obstacles like Amelia and Ron. The twists and turns in this book were excellent and kept me up late into the night. Definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves a good thriller.

Lots of twists and turns in “Watchmaker’s Hand”. I enjoy how Rhyme’s mind works and his lack of social skills when you know he is a good man. Nice return story for the Watchmaker and Rhyme’s crew. It was a little too heavy on the chemistry and mechanics do cranes for me, but didn’t stop me from reading this book

This was an excellent, well-written book. It was very entertaining, suspenseful and action packed. I couldn't put it down. I enjoyed this book and this author is a "must read" for me.