Just Keep Reading, Reading, Reading...

So, I knew Steven James was good.

People kept telling me so.

Well, mostly they just kept talking about how it was a fantastic thrill ride and how graphic, intense, slightly disgusting, and pretty disturbing it was; and that I would probably love it. 

(Hmm…I wonder if that’s a bad thing…)

James’ series, The Patrick Bowers Files (The Pawn, The Rook, The Knight, The Bishop, and The Queen), has been sitting on the shelf for a while. I wasn’t avoiding it, I just didn’t have the time, plus other books kept creeping up on me. Still, the snips and scraps I’d heard lurked in the back of my mind creating a desire to finish the series before I’d even started it.

In May, I attended a writing conference, Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writer’s Conference to be exact. It was my first time at anything like that. I took it slow and mainly read the entire week. However, I did choose to take one class: Steven James class.

It was about making your novel writing better. Now, I don’t have plans to start a novel right now, but it was helpful for me to see new ways to diagnose novels and dissect them for my reviews. While I was learning new tricks, that lurking desire grew bigger and bigger. James said a few things about his novels, mentioned a few passages, but thankfully didn’t give out too much information.

At one point I was nervous he’d given away the identity of the uncatchable killer… Then I actually read the first book.

Honestly, I couldn’t figure out why I hadn’t started sooner.

As my stomach turned and played with the idea of nausea…I was trapped. There was absolutely no chance of me not finishing this book. People were right; I loved it.

Yes, it’s detailed; yes, it’s kind of gory; yes, it’s a little gross. But does it catch your eye? Grab your attention? Make you want more? Of course.

After I survived the Prologue and got into Chapter One, I knew this was going to be more than just great imagery. The story was going to be a wild ride of unanswered mysteries, misleading clues, and abundant psychological thrills. I could not have been happier. James doesn’t want to gross you out, make you stop reading, or haunt your dreams, he just wants to write a good, intricate, unexpected, and satisfying novel. 

I will warn you, while his imagery won't haunt your sleep, his cliff-hangers probably will. 

In James’ class, he talked about how to create twists. Basically if you want one twist, you need to create two “worlds” in the story. The real one and the one the reader believes. (He went into much greater detail, but that’s all I’ll say. If you want to inquire more you can send him a question on his website: http://asktheauthor.net/)

Knowing how his thought process works made it interesting to go through the book and try to figure stuff out. Maybe I’d have an upper hand now that I had an idea of what he was up to.

Nope.

That was a lost hope; I should have known it. Reading through The Pawn I kept gathering information, but I seemed to be as stuck as the main character, Patrick Bowers. Even when I thought it was one of those times where the reader knows something the characters don’t, I was wrong. I felt like I was being tricked.

James also mentioned in his class about how a novel needs the emotional connection. He said that there is only a few places in writing where an author can use an intellectual approach. I thought of this as I read The Pawn. The book becomes this intricate balance between the two: emotional and intellectual. James masterfully intertwined the two to keep his readers on edge. (It worked.)

While my heart was breaking for the characters, my mind was spinning trying to guess what was going to happen next. On the contrary, I just couldn’t figure it out. James showed he still had the upper hand by giving the reader an answer that was completely unexpected. It’s worth mentioning when an author can keep you guessing through an entire book and not annoy you. It’s quite a talent.

I said before that at one point I was nervous James gave away who the killer was (that’s a pretty big deal if you’re going to read an entire series about a special agent and a killer). Yet, the book says, “Special Agent Patrick Bowers never met a killer he couldn’t catch. Until Now.” So I was like, “Okay, that makes sense. But then the killer has to survive…still be functional…and still be even better than Bowers.” Even as I finished the last page, I had a good grasp on who this uncatchable killer was…But…There was still that little bit of doubt. That “What if…” scenario that drives everybody crazy.

I didn’t tell you much about the actual book. I kind of have to leave it to the author to do that. However, the gist of it is that Patrick Bowers is a special agent whose technique is a little different, but it usually works. His stepdaughter’s name is Tessa and though she’s a little rough on the edges, you’ll love her too. Bowers gets called in to work on this case, but as the back of the book states, this is one that even he can’t solve. 

In the end, do be aware that there are some pretty vivid descriptions in this book, James isn't trying to disgust the reader, but you have to know it is in there. (Though I've heard many people have made it through.)

In my opinion, the story trumps the sometimes violent imagery. So my advice? As Dory the fish might say, just keep reading.