The Broken Window pits Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs against a mysterious and devious criminal whose M.O. is to carefully frame innocent people for his thefts and murders. His frame jobs are so perfect that he has gone completely undetected for years. His existence only comes to light when Rhyme realizes that the evidence in a murder investigation is too perfect. Soon, the police find a number of past cases that bear the same signs, in which innocent people may very well have been convicted.
With very little to go on, Rhyme et. al. set about learning more about their quarry. But, he always seems to be a couple of steps ahead of them; the closer they get, the more he seems to know about them and their plans. It quickly becomes apparent that this criminal can somehow find out anything about anyone — and in his hands, knowledge is certainly power.
As is his wont, Deaver packs plenty of twists and red herrings into his tale. In his last Rhyme/Sachs novel, The Cold Moon, the detectives were too good at anticipating the twists, which sucked some of the suspense out of the book. I think that Deaver handles his surprises better in The Broken Window; he keeps both the reader and the protagonists guessing. I also like that Deaver basically sticks to a single plot in this book, rather than the interweaving of numerous subplots that he uses in some earlier books.
The only annoyance this novel holds for me has to do with Deaver’s discussions of computers (which play a central role). His use of technological terms and jargon feels slightly off in places, although he has improved a great deal sine The Blue Nowhere, his hacker mystery. This is a minor fault, though, and probably wouldn’t bother anyone who isn’t somewhat of a computer nerd.
