The Steel Kiss: A Lincoln Rhyme Novel

Bestseller Deaver’s clever 12th Lincoln Rhyme novel (after 2014’s The Skin Collector) finds the forensic expert no longer working for the NYPD. But Rhyme’s lover, NYPD Major Cases detective Amelia Sachs, could use his help. She was chasing a murder suspect in a Brooklyn department store when she stopped to deal with a bizarre, fatal elevator accident. The lawyer for the wife of the man who was crushed in the elevator’s gears wants Rhyme to assist in a difficult civil suit. Meanwhile, the suspect, a cunning killer, plots more attacks that employ ingenious ways to subvert modern technology. Entertaining subplots focus on the release from prison of Sachs’s lover before Rhyme, Nick Carelli, who served time for robbery and assault; a private mission undertaken by Patrolman Ron Pulaski, a former protégé of Rhyme’s; and the travails of Rhyme’s new protégé, intern Juliette Archer. Convincing characters and an unexpected closing twist will remind readers why Deaver is one of today’s top thriller writers. Author tour. Agent: Deborah Schneider, Gelfman Schneider Literary Agents. (Mar.)