Despite the desperate efforts of the worker standing on the platform, a construction crane collapses in New York City, causing death and destruction. When a note saying additional buildings will be destroyed if the city doesn’t stop building high price apartments instead of constructing homes for people with lower incomes, forensic criminalist, Lincoln Rhyme and his wife, detective Amelia Sachs, are called upon to respond. The deadline for the next attack is 24 hours.
Rhyme quickly realizes that the perpetrator, known as the Watchmaker because of his interest in watches and clocks, is behind attacks. His real target is Rhyme.
The pair have to figure out the next target, as well as his disguise. and where he is located he can do more damage.
THE WATCHMAKER’S HAND has a lot of twists and turns as well as much extraneous material. For example, there are several paragraphs correcting the grammar errors on the note sent by the extortionist. Jeffrey Deaver spends an inordinate amount of time describing how the crane works. He repeatedly refers to cement when the product is actually concrete.
I found the plot unrealistic. It was too extreme and expensive, considering the goal. It also had a Perry Mason ending where everything is quickly resolved at the end.
I have read many of Jeffrey Deaver’s books. This one was a disappointment ( )

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. ( )

I love the amount of detail that Jeffrey Deaver includes in the forensic evidence collected and how it is processed. He walks a fine line between keeping you entertained, providing enough information for you to possibly solve the murder, and not bogging you down in overly scientific information.
I loved the alternating timelines and being able to find out little tidbits of the past as we were discovering large chunks of the present. ( )

Cleverly constructed plot. A villan called the watchmaker OSS causing havoc by sabotage of construction cranes. A few other crimes get thrown in such as attempted presidential assassination. Email hacking to implant incriminating messages and an attempt on Rhyme’s life. ( )

My thanks to the Author publisher's and NetGalley for providing me with a Kindle version of this book to read and honestly review.
Quality in every meaning of the word that I have come to expect from this Author. Quality characters and storyline with more than enough surprises and twists to baffle this ancient brain of mine. While this is book sixteen in the series, and I am way behind it worked as a standalone story. The start to the book is one of the most exciting and gripping sequences I can recall, with tension that had me holding my breath.
Completely and utterly recommended. ( )