I have yet to read a Patrick Bowers novel that I didn't
like. Admittedly, this one wasn't my favorite though I
enjoyed it very much.
THE KING is not quite the final book in The Bowers
Files
series, although the name would seem to imply otherwise. In
fact, the series has 9 or 10 books, 7 of which have been
published. Of course, chess lovers know there are only 6
game pieces. In keeping with the chess theme, Opening Moves
was last year's installment and a prequel to the entire
series. It's my understanding that at least two more books
are planned.
In THE KING, FBI Special Agent Patrick Bowers is faced with
a near fatal attack on his fiancée and fellow agent, Liang-
hua Jiang, while also trying to protect his adopted
daughter, Tessa, from his arch nemesis, serial killer
Richard Basque. He does this while also investigating a
global terrorist threat unfolding by use of prescription
drugs from yet another one of his many former opponents.
Steven James may be one of the best, certainly one of the
least heralded, suspense writers of this time. His stories
are solid, meaty and gripping, giving the reader a whole lot
to immerse himself within. Either of the two major plot
lines in this book would, in itself, have made a good
suspense story. Together, they make a great one.
But this was not my favorite installment in the series
because half the fun has been getting to know and
identifying the new criminal in each book. Here, Bowers is
faced with two familiar faces, and although I'm never quite
certain who the villain is until he shows himself or is
uncovered, I was pretty sure earlier than I would have liked
and thus, that made the reading slightly less enjoyable.
Only a mere slight, though. If ever a series was made for
television or film, this is it. My only real disappointment
is the knowledge that only two books remain in the series.
I will enjoy the rest of The Bowers Files series
while it
lasts. I'm already anxiously awaiting the next book.
FBI Special Agent Patrick Bowers has matched wits with some
of the most violent serial killers in history—and one of
them has never forgiven him....
Patrick Bowers has pursued the nation’s fiercest serial
killers—and now one elusive foe is back for revenge.
Settling into a new post at the FBI academy, Patrick and his
fiancée, Lien-hua Jiang, are planning their future together
with his stepdaughter, Tessa.
But just when his life seems normal, a demon from the past
returns to draw him down a dark road he hoped had closed
forever. Forced into a desperate hunt to save the two women
he loves most, Patrick is in a race against time to stop an
international conspiracy from becoming the most widespread
act of terrorism in U.S. history.
Excerpt
When Corey Wellington woke up at 5:14 a.m., he had no
intention of killing himself.
Over the last twenty years the thought of taking his own
life had, in fact, crossed his mind many times, but never as
clearly, as distinctly, as that first time, when he was a
junior in high school and Caitlyn Vaughn stood him up at
prom, and everyone knew about it, and it felt like someone
had knocked his feet out from under him and hit him with a
baseball bat in the gut at the same time.
In retrospect it seemed silly, childish even—feeling so
devastated by something so inconsequential—but at the time
it’d felt like his entire world had crumbled.
That night he’d gone to his father’s den in the basement and
taken the key to the gun cabinet from the desk drawer where
his dad kept it, where he thought it was safely hidden from
his two curious children.
Corey had opened the gun case, loaded one of the revolvers,
and then sat at the desk for a long time with the handgun
cradled in his hands.
It felt cold and heavier than it looked.
Wonder, dreams, hopes, all those things that make life
livable seemed to be slipping away like a stream of spent
possibilities. There was nothing he could think of that he
looked forward to: not summer vacation or his senior year or
seeing any movie or listening to any song or playing any
video game or being with any girl.
It was as if everything that lay on the horizon of that
moment held nothing but the promise of more rejection and
despair without any hope of healing.
Yes, a girl can do that to you. Yes, she can rip out your
reason for living, just like that, with one glance, one
comment, one prom-night giggle when she blows you off and
then jokes about it with her friends.
He’d raised the pistol and slid the end of the barrel into
his mouth.
Can you ever really know the reason behind an action? Can
you ever really tell for sure why you did one thing instead
of another? That, yes, this is why you quit your job, bought
the Toyota instead of the Ford, ordered spaghetti rather
than pizza, didn’t pull the trigger when you had the chance.
Maybe it was cowardice, maybe it was some strange breed of
courage that kept him from putting a bullet in his brain
that night, but at last he’d replaced the revolver and
ammunition in the cabinet, and no one had ever known that
he’d had a gun barrel clenched between his teeth and his
finger pressed against the trigger on prom night.
In the months that followed, thinking about how close he’d
come to ending it all had frightened him, and he’d found a
persistent heaviness lurking on the edge of his thoughts.
Eventually, he’d started taking meds to quiet the depression
and keep those thoughts of irreversible solutions away, but
still, over the years, it had stolen one marriage, two jobs,
and any number of friends from him.
But not since that night in high school two decades earlier
had the thought come to him as overpoweringly as it did
today: Kill yourself, Corey. Take your life. This is
something you can do right now. This very day.
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