Issue/Publication: San Jose Mercury News

Web Links

In Jeffery Deaver's latest, "The Broken Window: A Lincoln Rhyme Novel'' (Simon & Schuster, 415 pps., $26.95) Detective Amelia Sachs enters "a disgusting dive, a transients' hotel inhabited by druggies and drunks.''

In it she finds a man she knows to be an orthopedic surgeon, Robert Jorgensen, dressed in threadbare clothes, dissecting a book -- cutting out pages, slicing them into strips. Another book sits in a microwave oven.

"Microwaving's the best way to destroy them,'' Jorgensen tells Sachs. She thinks "Maybe mental illness had led to his downfall.''

But, Jorgensen turns out have his mental cards in order; he knows someone has maliciously stolen his credit identity and ruined his life -- cost him money, his career and his family.

And he knows that part of the way his torturer has tracked him is through devices placed in books (and DVDs and CDs and many other products) by manufacturers to keep certain big retailers happy. When the book (or whatever) is scanned at the cash register, the transaction is recorded and inventories updated in a computer server. Also recorded are credit card numbers.

Deaver's latest creepy sociopath (in the long line of Deaver's prodigous output) used Jorgensen's credit cards and other information to run up $2 million in debt, get his medical insurance cancelled, to send flowers to women other than Jorgensen's wife.

"... ruining him was a huge high,'' thinks the bad guy. "Orgasmic, indescribable ... Taking a perfectly normal, happy family man, a good, caring doctor, and destroying him.''

But that was just a hobby for this bad guy, who remains nameless for a long time in this scary, scary book. His job gives him access to information collected by a data-mining company -- he uses that information to find women to rape and kill, flawlessly framing innocent men for the crimes.

Out of nowhere, police descend on the innocent man, finding planted forensic evidence that matches clues at the murder scene, such as prints from recently purchased shoes.

The bad guy's fatal error turns out to be framing a fellow named Arthur Rhyme -- whose cousin just happens to be Lincoln Rhyme, Sachs' boss and boyfriend, and a brilliant criminologist. Rhyme and Sachs, as usual, figure out what's going on.

Deaver has written creepier books in some ways, but this may be his scariest. What Deaver reveals about data mining is terrifying.

How, where and when we buy things is recorded; how, when, where and to whom we make phone calls is recorded; where we are at any given moment is traceable, and not just by transactions, but by GPS devices and even because of those little devices planted in books.

There are companies that specialize in mining that data, then selling it to marketers so that you and everyone else may be approached with customized sales pitches. Or maybe the government uses the information to track perceived threats. Big Brother lives.

Deaver is a great writer and this is an entertaining book, but after you read it you may want to cut it up into strips, or maybe just give it a few minutes in the microwave.

ALSO NEW

-- When I reviewed Barbara Fister's first book, "On Edge,'' in 2002, I said "Her writing has the kind of truth to it that comes from being smart and aware in a hard world, and this book, in addition to being a thrilling mystery, has plenty to say about our society.''

The same can be said of her second book, "In the Wind'' (St. Martin's Minotaur, $24.95, 308 pps.), about an ex-cop, Anni Koskinen, who does a favor for a local priest by trying to give a shelter volunteer a ride out of Chicago.

Turns out the FBI wants that saint-like volunteer, Rosa Saenz, for the murder of an FBI agent in 1972.

Koskinen doesn't believe Saenz is guilty, and chases after the truth, learning a lot about the way the feds treated American Indians in the '60s and '70s, and the way the feds operate today, post-Patriot Act.

It's a good read that balances admiration and cyncism about activists in today's world.

-- "Beat Until Stiff'' by Claire M. Johnson was a first novel and one of the best I reviewed in 2003. Its unlikely hero was Mary Ryan, cranky, recently divorced and 34, a pastry chef at a fancy restaurant in San Francisco.

In "Roux Morgue'' (Poisoned Pen Press, 223 pps., $24.95), Ryan returns, starting a new job at the culinary academy from which she had graduated.

Like her first book, "Roux Morgue'' is populated with expert descriptions of the restaurant industry, its competitiveness and mix of grandeur and pettiness. Also, a sharp eye for San Francisco: "I love the mishmash of different ethnic groups, the odd mix of liberal politics and Brooks Brothers suits."

The pursuit of money by evil people is what gets someone killed in this fine, well-cooked mystery.

-- Dean Koontz returns with his fourth book about his most popular character, Odd Thomas, in "Odd Hours'' (Bantam, 352 pps., $27).

It is Koontz' usual odd mix of charm and eeriness, about his virginal hero who can see dead people and other creatures not visible to most humans. In this one, Odd Thomas is in a beach community and has a premonition that ""So much death was coming that it would be the end of death, such absolute destruction that nothing would escape to be destroyed hence.''

In this tale Odd Thomas is frequently accompanied by a ghost dog: ""He doesn't need to be fed, watered, or groomed. No poop to pick up.''

Also frequently on hand is the ghost of Frank Sinatra, taking the place of the ghost of Elvis Presley, who appeared in the earlier books.

And a female of consequence joins the cast in a way that promises another Odd Thomas book down the line.

Write to John Orr at johnorr@triviana.com

A version of this column appeared in the San Jose Mercury News on June 15, 2008