The Midnight Lock by Jeffery Deaver

Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons on November 30, 2021

The Midnight Lock weaves together several intriguing and timely themes. A tabloid publisher buys the rights to scandalous stories and kills the stories in exchange for political favors. A moderator for a YouTube clone needs to decide whether videos telling political lies or promoting violence should be deleted from the site. New York’s mayor, plagued with bad publicity about unsuccessful law enforcement efforts, decides to take the city’s failure out on private contractors rather than blaming the city’s police.

One of those private contractors is Lincoln Rhyme, the famed New York City criminalist who doesn’t let a wheelchair get in the way of solving crimes by analyzing flakes of dust. As the novel begins, Lincoln is being cross-examined in a murder case that he appears to have solved by analyzing six grains of sand. The cross-examination suggests that he was sloppy. The jury wisely decides not to base a murder verdict on six grains of sand. Outraged over unfavorable publicity about cases that the police seem to have botched, the mayor decides to shift the focus away from the city and blames Rhyme for the verdict. He cancels the city’s relationship with Rhyme and, in what seems like overkill, threatens to jail him for obstructing justice if he investigates any further crimes, and to discipline any cop who helps him.

The new rule might make Rhyme’s marital life awkward, given that he is married to Amelia Sachs, a cop who is intimately involved in his investigations. He also works with a team of cops who promptly ignore the edict and help Rhyme pursue The Locksmith, a fellow who picks complicated locks, enters the residences of women who live alone, and gazes at them. The well-founded fear is that The Locksmith will grow bored with gazing at women and will move on to more violent crimes. The reader will learn The Locksmith’s identity before it becomes apparent to Rhyme and Amelia.

It isn’t immediately clear how the family dispute over a publishing empire will play into the story. Imagine a Rupert Murdoch clone who gains a conscience and comes to believe that he should sell his holdings and invest the proceeds in an institute to advance ethical journalism. Hard to imagine, yes, but it’s easy to imagine that his family members will be displeased. Nor is clear how a social media influencer who has the credibility and following of Q will connect to the larger plot. A social media moderator is another key character who stars in a few chapters before the moderator’s role in the story becomes apparent.

Rhyme novels are always interesting. The Midnight Lock has less energy than some of the other books in the series, although it does give an action role to an ex-cop whose heroic exploits might allow him to return to the ranks of law enforcers. The story seems to be winding down long before it ends. That’s always a sign of misdirection. In a contrived ending, we learn that things were not as they seemed, but the surprise ending isn’t likely to surprise many readers. Still, the plot elements fit together nicely and it’s impossible not to learn something new while reading a Lincoln Rhyme novel. This installment isn’t special, but it's entertaining.

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