If you were to look at the lists on the right-hand side of this page, you would see that the Patrick Bowers series is under my favourite pieces of literature (Right with the Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion and A Song of Ice and Fire.). But to my misfortune, I only own the first two books in Steven James' thriller series (that being "The Pawn" and "The Rook"), and have not had an opportunity to read the next books in the series.
And then I realized that one of my friends owns all the books in the series that have been published so far, and she was more than happy to lend me Book Three, "The Knight". No prizes for guessing why I'm so over-tired today- I was reading, and not for a course. Bad student.
Also, this is why I missed the discussions on the NDP, religion and politics. I think it was a worthy sacrifice.
Disclaimer: There be spoilers in this post. Ye be warned.
I was surprised over some of the changes in this book from where we left off in "The Rook". I was disappointed to see that Patrick, the protagonist, was slowly breaking up with the love interest in the first two books, Lien-hua. I've always loved the thought of Patrick and Lien-hua together, but evidently Steven James disagreed. But I think I like the new love interest, Cheyenne, although she comes across as one of the multi-talented Mary Sues that I've seen on FanFiction.Net. I don't know of too many people who have such a talent with a gun that they can shoot a chain out with four shots while riding a galloping horse out of a burning barn. I suppose I will have to wait until I read "The Bishop" and "The Queen" before making a judgement.
When I saw mention of Sebastian Taylor, the main villain from the last two books, I automatically suspected he was the antagonist in this story as well. Considering he had been brutally murdered by Chapter Four, I was wrong. This left me perplexed for most of the remainder of the book as to who the murderer actually was- something I admire in James. How he can create such diverse, blood-chilling, clever villains consistently and never bore his readers is beyond me. I want his job. No, I'm not mentioning who the villain in this story (and potentially the next book) is- you'll have to read the book yourself.
As always, there is a subtle Bible lesson worked into the book. Today, it was discussing lying. It's a sin!, you say. Right, yes- but the Israelite midwives in Egypt lied to save the lives of baby boys. Rahab sinned to save the lives of the spies. There are many other cases in the Bible where people lied to save others, and God rewarded them. I won't mention why exactly this came up (it concerned a murderer Patrick caught thirteen years ago and a re-trial), but it's made me ponder. What is God's view on a person lying to protect the innocent?
"The Knight" is an excellent read, although perhaps not for those of the weak of heart or stomach. It makes you think. It makes you afraid of your neighbour. It makes you appreciate sarcasm, wit, and good coffee.
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