Guest Review: Every Crooked Path

Summary: Who is the Piper? . . .

Special Agent Patrick Bowers returns in an electrifying prequel to the Bowers Chess series from critically acclaimed, national bestselling novelist Steven James.

A mysterious suicide and a series of abductions draw Patrick into a web of intrigue involving an international conspiracy where no one is who they appear to be and the stakes have never been higher.

Soon, Patrick discovers that the secret to stopping the Piper’s current crime spree lies in unlocking answers from an eight-year-old cold case—and the only way to do that is by entering the terrifying world of the conspirators himself.

Dark, probing, and chilling, Every Crooked Path takes an unflinching look at the world of today’s cybercrimes and delves into a parent’s worst nightmare as it launches a new chapter of Patrick Bowers thrillers. -- Signet

Booking Pap Pap is back and this week it's with a review for EVERY CROOKED PATH by Steven James. Here are his thoughts:

FBI Special Agent Patrick Bowers, as a member joint task force with the New York Police Department, is asked to review a murder scene in a New York City apartment. While in the apartment, Bowers is attacked and as Bowers appears to have the attacker under control, he surprisingly jumps to his death from the apartment balcony. The investigation into these two deaths leads Bowers into the dark and chilling world of crimes against children including pornography, child sex trafficking and murder. Bowers’ investigation requires him to delve into several recent child abductions, an eight year old cold case involving a child abduction/murder and even into the cyber-world of child pornography.

Although the story is everything a good thriller should be and the subject matter is current and compelling, the strength of EVERY CROOKED PATH to me is the deep character development. Whether it’s Bowers, his girlfriend Christie and her daughter Tessa, his FBI partner Jody, his task force partner Tobin Cavanaugh or Frances Edlemore, a computer whiz , author Steven James develops a deep personal background outside the story line for each that allows the reader to really understand these characters.

As I previously mentioned, EVERY CROOKED PATH is a real thriller that tackles a very difficult subject matter. It is fast paced, suspenseful and has enough twists and turns to keep the reader guessing until the very end when the author neatly pulls everything together. He does however leave enough unanswered questions to justify a sequel. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good thriller with the caveat that the subject matter may make some readers uncomfortable.

EVERY CROOKED PATH is a prequel to Steven James popular series “The Bowers Files”. Although I have not read any of these books, based on my enjoyment of EVERY CROOKED PATH, they are now on my must read list.

Thanks to my father for his review and to the publisher for providing a review copy of this novel.