Fastidious author Jeffery Deaver has his ace forensic specialist and consultant for the NYPD, Lincoln Rhymes, come up against a mastermind killer who has unlimited access to the world's most detailed bank of data on the people of the world. That's you and me, and the implication is clear: the possibility of our most personal information falling into the hands of a serial killer fills us with dread, and it forms the basis of the considerable suspense Deaver builds to a crescendo when Amelia Sachs, Rhymes' beautiful partner and paramour, falls into a deadly maniac's hands.