The Bishop (Patrick Bowers Files Series #4) Book

Woo-hoo- my new favoritest thriller author.
If only Patrick weren's such a GUY I'd give five stars.
My real review comes next Monday.
I'm definitely getting the rest of the books.
So many authors...so little time.

My review:


Move over, ghost of Robert Ludlum! Meet Steven James, who has published a number of novels which are new to me.

In The Bishop, fourth in the Bowers files series, FBI Special Agent Patrick Bowers is called upon to use his keen wit to unravel a serial killer's path of morbid and unusually cruel murders. Seemingly unrelated, Bowers and his team, which includes not one but two love interests, must put all the puzzle pieces together to reveal the pattern of death and stop the killers.

In a horrifyingly depraved game, killers who met by random on an Internet virtual game site meet in real life and embark upon a crazed lifestyle that has both the reader and the partners guessing who is truly controlling the stakes. Throughout the case, the mess of innumerable investigative agencies collect evidence in an attempt to outdo each other and solve the case of the senator's brutally murdered daughter; a senator who proposed cutting the budgets and reducing the numbers of federal, overlapping investigative agencies.
If Bowers, widowed less than a year, hasn't enough on his plate with this case and a messed-up personal life to deal with, his seventeen-year-old exceptionally wise step-daughter learned the truth about her parentage and demanded to meet her father who now sues Bowers for custody. Family or Crucial Work? Bowers manages his choices with aplomb.

There can be a fine line to cross in inspirational suspense. How to make fans of gripping reality thriller cop fiction accept a faith-based work can be almost impossible. Indeed, the only professing Christian in this book was a side character, but she made her case, and the crime was an ethical one, which had everybody questioning morality. While the murders and by-play were brutal and occasionally described graphically, James never went overboard into the truly gross and managed to tell a rocking-good story without resorting to vile language or scenes. Excellent research without mind-numbing detail. James explains his motivation for his style in his blog. Although this is the fourth of the series, and it does stand alone, enough teasers about earlier books has led me to add the others to my "buy" list and permanent shelves.

WARNING: This book contains violence and graphic descriptions of disturbing crime scenes. It takes the reader inside the minds of psychopathic killers.