Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs are pitched against a Watchmaker, who plans his carnage with the precision of a timepiece.

A cat-and-mouse game between New York police and a killer, hired to eliminate a trio of witnesses in a trial. He has already killed one and detectives Lincoln Rhyme, a quadriplegic, and Amelia Sachs have to catch him before he kills the other two. By the author of The Bone Collector.

"Lincoln Rhyme was once a brilliant criminologist, a genius in the field of forensics--until an accident left him physically and emotionally shattered. But now a diabolical killer is challenging Rhyme to a terrifying and ingenious duel of wits. With police detective Amelia Sachs by his side, Rhyme must follow a labyrinth of clues that reaches back to a dark chapter in New York City's past--and reach further into the darkness of the mind of a madman...

"Amelia Sachs is hot on the trail of a killer. She's chasing him through a department store in Brooklyn when an escalator malfunctions. The stairs give way, with one man horribly mangled by the gears. Sachs is forced to let her quarry escape as she jumps in to try to help save the victim. She and famed forensic detective Lincoln Rhyme soon learn, however, that the incident may not be an accident at all, but the first in a series of intentional attacks....