The Pawn
A Patrick Bowers Thriller
Steven James
Baker Publishing Group (Trade Paperback)
ISBN-10: 0-8007-3240-5 (0800732405)
ISBN-13: 978-0-8007-3240-0 (9780800732400)
Publication Date: September 2007
List Price: $13.99
Synopsis (from the publisher): Special Agent Patrick Bowers had only met one man who made him truly afraid. Until now. When he's called to North Carolina to consult on the case of an area serial killer, he finds himself in a deadly game. Cunning and lethal, the killer is always one step ahead of the law, and he's about to strike again. It will take all of Bowers's instincts and training to stop this man who calls himself the Illusionist. And just when the pieces start to come together, Bowers realizes they're not quite adding up. Can he unravel the pattern and save the next victim? Or will the Illusionist win the game by taking one of his opponent's pieces?
Review: Steven James introduces FBI Agent Patrick Bowers in The Pawn, an exhilarating thriller that will keep readers up late into the night.
Bowers is called from his home in Colorado to North Carolina to assist
in identifying and ultimately stopping a serial killer. He had been
assigned to similar cases in the past, but never to one where the
killer is always one step ahead of the FBI crew. The killer is aware
that Bowers has been called in on the case, even calling Bowers to
identify himself as “The Illusionist” with self-proclaimed
powers of misdirection, control, and meticulous planning. Although
Bowers works well with, and cooperates with, the forensic scientists
and profilers on the case, he feels he must use his own unique, often
unorthodox, investigative approach. Unlike the others on the team, he
is interested in precisely when and where the crime occurred. He
believes the significance of the crime’s time and location are
important to the killer and thus to capturing him. Bowers faces quite a
few dangerous situations in order to try to save the lives that the
Illusionist has chosen for elimination – including his own and
that of his daughter Tessa.
The best thrillers have multi-faceted conflicts. In The Pawn
Bowers is faced with one of a more personal nature. He is a single
father and has had a difficult time raising his 15-year-old daughter
since the death of her mother. The fact that the killer has chosen
young women as victims plays into his fear that he's losing his
daughter. The Illusionist seems to know this and factors it into his
game plan. It is not unlike chess, in which he makes a move leaving
each dead girl where she can easily be found. A pawn is left with the
victim, first white, and then black, a not so subtle clue that lets
Bowers know the next move is his.
The Pawn is, in a word,
intense. As Bowers pushes towards checkmate, it's never clear to the
reader which pieces will be left standing at the end of the game.
Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of The Pawn and to Newman Communications for providing an ARC of the book for this review.
Review Copyright © 2007 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved.
Mysteries in this series ...
The Pawn
Baker Publishing (Trade paperback), September 2007
ISBN-10: 0-8007-3240-5 (0800732405)
ISBN-13: 978-0-8007-3240-0 (9780800732400)
Omnimystery keywords for The Pawn ...
Location(s) referenced: North Carolina.