The Cutting Edge

Jeffery Deaver has many talents as a writer of thriller novels.

But one stands out in his latest Lincoln Rhyme novel, “The Cutting Edge,” he can make a supporting character engaging within a few pages. 

Throughout the book, Deaver introduces numerous “throwaway” characters. Characters who are confronted by the malcontented bad guy in this book. 

Readers quickly get to know them then Deaver throws them into peril. Then he doesn’t let the reader know what happens to these characters for a few pages, or even a few chapters later. Then, they’re gone – either dead or harmed by their brief encounter with the bad guy and readers.

These brief characters keep “The Cutting Edge” moving more than main player Lincoln Rhyme, the paraplegic forensic investigator, and his cast of regular supporting characters. Rhyme and his partner/wife Amelia Sachs are in many ways backup characters in their own book here.

Rhyme and Sacks must find and stop a mad killer who claims he means to save/avenge the world’s diamonds by attacking engaged couples and fiancees with diamond rings on their fingers. Meanwhile, the killer seeks an assistant to one diamond cutter who escaped as a witness to a brutal crime all while a series of earthquakes rock and imperil New York.

Lincoln Rhyme fans will find “The Cutting Edge” a fast-paced thriller filled with more twists and turns than normal and plenty of surprises that meet readers’ suspicions and some that may not.

The novel omits a staple of past Lincoln Rhyme books – the long lists of forensic information that Deaver regularly uses to fill several pages. Those lists are not included in “The Cutting Edge” and just as well. Most readers likely flipped through them anyway. 

And that’s OK. Deaver’s plots are page-turner enough.