Prequel to the Patrick Bowers series, which I have loves. This one, is amazingly, even darker and creepier than the rest. I know that I don't sleep well while reading these, but I love them, so I blocked out as much of one day as possible and managed to read it in about 12 hours one day (taking breaks to catch my breath and take care of the kiddos). Fantastic prequel, was nice to see Bowers near the beginning of her career, just not something I would let my kids read, due to very dark, scary themes. James is back with a dark and macabre prequel to the Patrick Bowers series. Truly wicked characters populate this story, as they do in other books of the series. One of the villains at least is mimicking some of the most notorious criminals in American history. Bowers and his new friend Ralph must stop him. Along tho way, they are presented with deep questions of life. Particularly interesting to me was Ralph's comment that hatred is the cousin of love.The action kept me reading the last half of the book until I finished it. But then some disappointment set in. I had seen James use the same plot formula in enough of the previous installments of the series that I could just about predict who the main villain would turn out to be. Only one of the plot twists took me by surprise. And while I enjoyed seeing the friendship between Ralph and Bowers start, none of the main female characters of the series are around yet. Bower's girlfriend in is a mere placebo of a character, and I knew from the start how she would act in this story.All in all, James is a great writer, and this story will probably be a good start to the Bowers series if you've never read any of the books of the series. I give it a 3.5.
Do You like book Opening Moves (2012)?
Explains a lot about the other books in the series. Can't wait for The King to come out.
—lukenlarry
Going back to the beginning was a surprising twist. Awesome to see the background.
—krystine
Not a fan of the graphic descriptions, but still a good read.
—val
Very disturbing - my favorite in the series
—trollolol
