So I spent last night watching the Eagles-Chiefs game and then the Phillies game up to the top of the tenth inning! I also finished Book 30 for the year The Rook by Steven James. The Rook is the second book in the series which features Patrick Bowers a special consultant to the FBI using his talents as an investigator Patrick tracks serial offenders using geospatial techniques. Place, location and time of the crimes versus motives. In this novel Patrick and his colleague Lien-hua Jiang are called to San Diego to consult on a series of of fires being set around town. Patrick brings along his stepdaughter Tessa. (whose mother died of cancer about a year prior and Patrick and Tessa are still working on their relationship). Meanwhile the character of Creighton Melice is introduced client who is out on bail is given a “new girlfriend” and is setup by a mysterious benefactor Shade in San Diego where he can do what he does which is filming women as he drowns them. Additionally, a defense contractor billionaire Victor Drake, is being forced by the government to provide the prototype of a device that he is working on for the Department of Defense.
Soon as Patrick and Tessa visit a seedy part of town and a bizarre homeless man attacks their car and then commits suicide and then a fire breaks out within a block of where the incident took place, Patrick and Lien-hua are drawn into a complex investigation! The investigation soon includes Creighton Melice, Victor Drake and his Sherrod Aquarium, Shade, the prototype device and even a character from the past book Sebastain Taylor!!
Through it all Patrick is trying to work out his feelings for Lien-hua and his relationship with Tessa. I really enjoy this series and may have to go out and get the next book The Knight soon, because I am either two books behind in the series. James does a really good job of storytelling and he keeps the pages turning and the suspense building until the very last page. The characters of Patrick, Tessa, Lien-hua, and colleague Ralph are great and the sub-plot of Patrick’s relationship with the women in his life is also well-done. Overall the book is a four out of five, maybe even a five! So check him out!
“Once again, James has given us a rip-snorting thriller with a beating heart, a calculating cat-and-mouse game of chess, and a satisfying ending.” – Eric Wilson, New York Times bestselling author