Sunday, August 15, 2010

The Knight-Steven James

The Knight
Steven James
Signet, Sep 7 2010, $7.99
ISBN: 9780451231024

MSU Law Professor Lebreau and her students found discrepancies in the DNA evidence that has allowed Devin Basque to have a second trial after thirteen years in prison having been convicted as a serial killer. FBI Agent Patrick Bowers must leave his Colorado home to testify at the retrial in Chicago. At the same time that he is to give a sworn statement in an Illinois courtroom, Denver Police Lieutenant Kurt Mason asks for his help on a murder tied back to a double homicide. The victim in the first homicide has a tape recorder in her mouth that shocks Bower as the culprit says he will see Bower in Chicago; few people knows he is going to the Basque retrial. He needs to get ahead of the culprit who is playing him like a puppet on a string when an incident in the courtroom leaves a father of a victim dead.

Adding complications to his already overly wrought schedule is his teen step-daughter Tessa who has found her late mom’s diary in which she says she considered aborting her child. Tessa wants to meet and confront her biological father, Paul Lansing. Bowers wants to help his beloved stepchild and be there if she needs his shoulder.

The latest Bowers geospatial profiling police procedural is a terrific entry as so much is going on with the Basque case, the stalking serial killer who has targeted Bower as a victim (readers know before the Fed who he is) and the Tessa scenario. Fans of the series will enjoy this strong thriller and seek the back list (see The Pawn and The Rook) as the action never stops with clever criminals watching CSI for tops and on the personal front as Tessa seeks her biological father.

Harriet Klausner

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