Jeffrey Deaver
Jeffery Deaver thriller
Jeffrey Deaver was just a name to me; until now I hadn’t read any of his many novels. But in my efforts to empty some of my groaning bookshelves his thriller The Steel Kiss was next in line. 
I confess I gulped when I felt its thickness – 600+ pages, but hey, I have a stack of wool to knit up into garments for refugees abroad so it’ll add to the pile substantially if I just apply myself to knitting while I read.
We’re instantly dragged into the story wide-eyed and aghast when police officer Amelia Sachs is diverted from tracking a murder suspect, by the screams of a middle-aged man falling into the moving gear machinery of an escalator in a New York shopping mall. The suspected criminal she’d been following escapes. But now she and her team, including disabled criminologist Lincoln Rhyme, have a new crusade on their hands – seeking substantial compensation for the destitute widow and son of the unfortunate man who are in grave danger of ending up living in a relative’s garage in some obscure backwater.
But this was no simple case of faulty machinery. The killer Sachs was chasing is someone who can make terrible things happen by remote control; turning ordinary household objects into murder weapons. Electrocuting, burning, frying people in their own homes; causing cars to seriously malfunction causing horrendous fatal ‘accidents’. And this relentless man with a gruesome agenda is watching their every move.
What did I like about this book?
Fast pace.
Feisty distinctive and memorable characters – two in wheelchairs; one police officer who was a fashion model. The killer has an unusual condition, Marfan Syndrome, which makes him unusual though he still manages to elude capture.
Periodic updates of case profiles which help to summarise where we are in the mounting horror.
Increasing complexity as the killer uses new techniques and the case against him reveals a backstory and motivation.
I got a pile of hats made effortlessly!
What did I like less?
Some speech patterns are difficult to decipher.
Technical language is hard to understand.
So, not a volume I’ll be returning to my bookshelves, but I learned some valuable lessons about writing from it.