The latest Lincoln Rhyme novel features the recurring Jeffery Deaver topics of identity theft, privacy rights violations and intrusive personal surveillance. It has yet another unhinged serial killer, and develops into the familiar game of cat and mouse between Rhyme, the brilliant quadriplegic forensic scientist, and a criminal sociopath of near-genius. This killer is an obsessive collector of all manner of human detritus - and computer data which he uses to ruin lives. It begins with Lincoln advising Inspector Longhurst of the Metropolitan Police by long-distance phone call, on the apprehension of a global professional killer, who's arrived in England to carry out a `hit'. He's then knocked sideways by some bad news. His cousin Arthur - we haven't heard about him before but the author charts their relationship prior to the pair's falling-out - has been arrested on suspicion of murder, and the case against him is pretty cast-iron. Naturally, under the Rhyme microscope, flaws are immediately spotted and Lincoln realises he's up against a very clever killer who murders at will, then frames innocent parties after stealing their identity. He places the other case on hold and diverts his considerable brainpower to the task of apprehending the guilty man, and thus liberating Arthur. His investigation expands to take in a cutting-edge data mining company - Strategic Systems Datacorps (SSD) - who among other things, build up a profile of every American and sell this on to companies who wish to focus their attention on a particular demographic. They also have a full range of other software programs - both analytical and predictive - which they claim to have developed for the greater good. Only when Rhyme's team get into the company's databases does the full extent of SSD's snooping become apparent. By page 80 we've already had two pieces of Deaver misdirection (both of which we've seen before - many times!) and I began to fear it would turn into the series of contrived scenarios that have marred two or three of the books in the series. But no, Jeffery reins these in and supplies a number of satisfying twists near the end. To say that the book is meticulously researched (Jeff has his own team to do this), rigourously constructed and is completely ingenious, is a given. To say that the plot is totally implausible is another. But, his characterisation is, as usual, excellent and a comparatively mellow Lincoln Rhyme is assisted by the usual cast - his personal aide, Thom, the lovely Amelia Sachs, Lon Sellitto, Mel Cooper et al. The kind of surveillance Jeff writes about here just isn't a reality at present, and this is where the book verges on science fiction - but there's nothing wrong with that. Deaver even cites, and quotes from, two very early SF classics - `Brave New World' and `1984' to emphasize this point and to underline the dangers of a totalitarian society where `They' know everything about you. As with all the Lincoln Rhyme books the main span of this techno-thriller is compressed into a very short space of time - around three days - and this makes the book more immediate and lends it a real page-turning quality. I would think that few will be completely disappointed with this one and absolutely NO-ONE could ever accuse Jeff of not giving the reader his moneys' worth! And in the book's final few pages it becomes obvious who the subject of the next Rhyme thriller will be - but to say any more would be to give it away. This isn't quite top-of-the-range Lincoln Rhyme (will he ever top `The Bone Collector'?) but it's pretty good stuff. It's certainly better than last year's fairly boring `The Sleeping Doll', featuring his new investigator Kathryn Dance - who's name-checked several times in here. I can see `The Broken Window being read on a number of long flights and in a number of transit lounges this summer...