The Kill Room (Lincoln Rhyme)

The Kill Room is the tenth full-length novel in the Lincoln Rhyme series by American author, Jeffery Deaver. Lincoln Rhyme, Amelia Sachs and the team are asked to assist in the case of an assassination, but the case has political implications. Assistant DA, Nance Laurel is determined to get a conviction against Shreve Metzger, the head of the Washington-sanctioned National Intelligence and Operations Service, for authorising the shooting of an out-spoken anti-American activist in his hotel room in the Bahamas on insufficient evidence of potential threat.

With no crime scene to examine, and virtually no cooperation from the Bahamian Police, Rhyme and Sachs find it difficult to make progress. And keeping their investigation under wraps is difficult as the NIOS seems to have inside information: possible witnesses and sources are being eliminated even as the team are on their way to investigate, and soon, it seems, members of the team themselves are also in danger.

This instalment touches on several topical themes: the ethics of pe-emptive strike; anger management; the selective dissemination of information; and the use of unmanned aerial vehicles. Deaver has Rhyme travelling to the Bahamas, but handles this much more realistically than Patterson’s excursion to Africa for Alex Cross. There is a wealth of information about knives, guns and bullets, as well as quite a bit on recipes and cooking.

Deaver will need to have his own legal team at the ready: there are so many twists and turns in both plot and characters that some reader is bound to sue for whiplash injury. He gives the reader several exciting climaxes and a truly ruthless killer, but nothing is quite what it first seems in this Deaver page-turner.