Book+Review

media type="file" key="westong-bookreview-2012.mp3" width="240" height="20" Ever wonder how the FBI truly works well the book “The Bishop” can help you out there. This book is the fourth story is a series a written by author Steven James. The book series is focused around FBI field agent Patrick Bowers who hunts down serial killers who terrorize society. Through it is an action packed book James does well in keeping the story sane, realistic, and not going overboard with things that aren’t capable in real life. Another great thing about this book is you get to see points of view of three or four characters, usually Bowers, his daughter, and the serial killers point of view. James when writing this book also does an elaborate job at planting seeds for the conclusion. One of the great things about this is James does it subtly so it’s something you may overlook, but then is important in the end of the book.
 * "The Bishop"**

One of the best things about the book is how the author writes the story to be very realistic, so realistic it feels as though it could be true. One of the best ways he does this is showing characters thinking and not making anyone the “superhero” or someone who can just save whatever goes wrong. This is done in many ways such as having lives sacrificed, making rational decisions, or not having people that are super strong and can take people down with a single punch. I felt it was nice to see this in a book because there are tons of authors now who have decided they need a perfect ending where all the good characters survive and walk away unharmed.

Another thing with the characters personalities are how realistic they are, nowhere in the book will you find the perfect person who’s a complete goody two shoes. Of course there will be completely evil people because it’s a book about serial killers, but that’s to be expected. James also does a fantastic job when writing the story to not reveal every detail about the characters right away. As the series progresses the more you learn about a person and why they act the way they do. But that’s not the only thing, unlike the massive amount of books where you only get the personalities of two or three characters this book makes sure you know about eight or nine personalities. The helpful thing with this is when something happens to a character you feel as though you truly know them and they’re not just some fictional character who means nothing.

The story itself is a descriptive one that can make the book seem much longer than it actually is. James does an outstanding job at adding plenty of detail and subplots. The detail in this book is deep enough to have it so you can truly visualize how the scene is and people actually look. The subplots in this story are plentiful as well. Due to the amount of subplots in the story it can make it feel as real life does, not just one even t for a period of time. Not just one but several changing over the course of the days.

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a book to read, though it’s better to read the first three before starting this one so you can understand the subplots more. It’s a fantastic book and really helps you understand how our law enforcement works and the insanity that serial killers have.