Customer Reviews

Shock Wave

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Florida Department of Law Enforcement Bill Tasker had a bad experience working with the FBI in last year's Walking Money. His career and reputation, not to mention his life, were nearly ruined by a crooked government agent.

As Shock Wave begins, Tasker is again working with the feds and he's not very happy about it. He doesn't have much choice, though, as he teams up with the G-men in pursuit of a hillbilly arms dealer with a stolen Stinger missile.

The FBI thinks they've got the case all wrapped up, but Tasker isn't sure. Over the objections of the federal agents, he continues to investigate and finds that the intrigue runs much deeper than anyone suspects.

At the center of that mystery is a terrorist bomber planning the biggest "event" of his life. Somehow, though, he manages to stay just one step ahead of the authorities. Tasker begins to wonder: is the killer that smart of is he just lucky? Or is somebody on the inside helping him?

Aided by his best friend, Miami cop Derrick Sutter, and ATF agent Camy Parks, Tasker has to catch the bomber before time runs out. If they fail, numerous lives will be lost, possibly including their own.

In the character of Bill Tasker, Born has created a winning protagonist. A dedicated cop and committed father, Tasker struggles to balance the demands of his job with his obligations to his family. Like the rest of us, he doesn't always make the right choices, but his heart is in the right place and he earns our respect for his efforts.

The plot of Shock Wave is tremendously entertaining, combining edge-of-your-seat action and suspense, an intriguing game of cat and mouse, and occasional passages of laugh-out-loud humor.

After a career in law enforcement stretching nearly two decades, James O. Born knows the way cops think, act and talk, and he draws on that experience to write with the insight and authenticity that few authors can match.

That expert knowledge wouldn't be enough, though, to create such a winning book. Doing that takes serious writing chops, the kind of ability that most folks can't muster. Born is the exception, though. With both street cred and talent to spare, he is ideally positioned to write top-notch crime fiction, something which Walking Money promised and Shock Wave confirmed.

James O. Born is the best thing to happen to Florida crime writing since Elmore Leonard hit the Sunshine State. This guy is the real deal.

James O. Born has scored another winner with Shock Wave. His first book was a huge success and this one is even better. Mr. Born brings characters to life that everyone can relate to in a setting and story that will have you on the edge of your seat. The underlying humor by the members of law enforcement in his book will have every law enforcement member who reads this book laughing till they cry.

Shock Wave is the second novel from ex-cop James O. Born and it is dynamite, both figureatively and literally. This book moves so fast and smooth that I really hated to put it down.

State cop Bill Tasker must move quick to fix his own mistake and he doesn't find much help from the FBI. The bad guy is fresh and interestingand somehow Born makes us root for him at one point.

I believe this is my favorite book so far this year.

I really liked Born's first effort, Walking Money and commented at the time that he was joining the cadre of writers such as Carl Hiaasen and Tim Dorsey who write about characters that seem to populate many funny and interesting Florida novels. He has cemented that reputation with Shock Wave.

Special FDLA agent Jim Tasker is back as are several of the folks that we met in the first novel. He isn't having any more luck in trying to get his ex-wife to return and even less luck in getting along with the FBI. The loose cannon in this story is a guy named Daniel Welles. Welles is mistakingly arrested as part of a joint law enforcement effort to bring down the seller of a Stinger missile. While he had nothing to do with that sale other than return a repaired possum trap to the seller, he soon becomes very much on their radar screen after Tasker manages to get him freed from custody on the missile charge.

Welles likes to blow things up. So far it has been relatively harmless unless you count a guy who was killed when a bomb he made on a cruise ship killed a baggage handler. The FBI agent in charge of that investigation wasn't too concerned ("The guy wasn't even an American") However, Welles has bigger and better plans and most of the book is spent watching his plans develop and the efforts of the Florida law enforcement community try to bring him down. The action is steady, the characters are truly characters and you willl finish the book eagerly awaiting the next one. Oh, yes! There will be a next one.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement agent Bill Tasker has a grudge against the FBI since a corrupt agent tried to frame him. When he sees the FBI zealously pursuing the wrong man in a missile transaction, he doesn't hesitate to set things right. The action doesn't earn him any friends at the agency, so when he uncovers evidence that family man Daniel Wells may not have been guilty of trafficking a Stinger missile, but probably was guilty of a cruise ship bombing that resulted in the death of a baggage handler two years ago, the FBI isn't very willing to help. Tasker isn't without friends, however, and he and his partner from the Miami PD, Derek Sutter, team up with attractive ATF agent Camy Parks and her racially challenged boyfriend, FBI agent Jimmy Lail. Together, they scour Miami for any trace of the suddenly missing Daniel Wells, his lovely wife Alicia, or his three children. Every time they think they're making progress tracking Wells, the bomber is one step ahead of them, and they're running out of time because Bill Tasker knows he's got something big and explosive planned for Miami; he just isn't sure what, when, or where. Meanwhile, Daniel Wells prepares to create the chaotic scene of a lifetime, something much more terrifying and disruptive than any team of terrorists could put together after years of planning.

While a newcomer on the crowded Florida crime fiction writer block, Born has created an engaging cast of characters, managing to show the points of view of both the cops and their quarry with equal aplomb. Daniel Wells isn't normal, but he's also not a raving, hateful bad guy. He's even almost likeable. The cop characters are also shown close up, quirky and flawed, from Jimmy Lail, whose racist parents pushed him to defy them in a way that annoys everyone, Camy Parks, who's always on the make and has trouble choosing from the array of possibilities, Derek Sutter, who bemusedly watches everyone else's interactions between strip club surveillance, to Bill Tasker, whose obsessive nature helps him solve cases but also destroyed his marriage. There are just as many tense moments as chuckles interspersed throughout a fairly well-drawn mystery with a couple twists and turns. Everything from the story line to the characters works here, woven together into a Florida police procedural crime caper. Fans of Dorsey and Hiaasen, as well as fans of more mainstream mysteries should all find something to like here. I eagerly await Mr. Born's next novel.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement agent Bill Tasker has a grudge against the FBI since a corrupt agent tried to frame him. When he sees the FBI zealously pursuing the wrong man in a missile transaction, he doesn't hesitate to set things right. The action doesn't earn him any friends at the agency, so when he uncovers evidence that family man Daniel Wells may not have been guilty of trafficking a Stinger missile, but probably was guilty of a cruise ship bombing that resulted in the death of a baggage handler two years ago, the FBI isn't very willing to help. Tasker isn't without friends, however, and he and his partner from the Miami PD, Derek Sutter, team up with attractive ATF agent Camy Parks and her racially challenged boyfriend, FBI agent Jimmy Lail. Together, they scour Miami for any trace of the suddenly missing Daniel Wells, his lovely wife Alicia, or his three children. Every time they think they're making progress tracking Wells, the bomber is one step ahead of them, and they're running out of time because Bill Tasker knows he's got something big and explosive planned for Miami; he just isn't sure what, when, or where. Meanwhile, Daniel Wells prepares to create the chaotic scene of a lifetime, something much more terrifying and disruptive than any team of terrorists could put together after years of planning.

While a newcomer on the crowded Florida crime fiction writer block, Born has created an engaging cast of characters, managing to show the points of view of both the cops and their quarry with equal aplomb. Daniel Wells isn't normal, but he's also not a raving, hateful bad guy. He's even almost likeable. The cop characters are also shown close up, quirky and flawed, from Jimmy Lail, whose racist parents pushed him to defy them in a way that annoys everyone, Camy Parks, who's always on the make and has trouble choosing from the array of possibilities, Derek Sutter, who bemusedly watches everyone else's interactions between strip club surveillance, to Bill Tasker, whose obsessive nature helps him solve cases but also destroyed his marriage. There are just as many tense moments as chuckles interspersed throughout a fairly well-drawn mystery with a couple twists and turns. Everything from the story line to the characters works here, woven together into a Florida police procedural crime caper. Fans of Dorsey and Hiaasen, as well as fans of more mainstream mysteries should all find something to like here. I eagerly await Mr. Born's next novel.

There is a missle, but it disappears from the plot almost immediately. The plot has many similarities to the earlier work and surprises with only the ineptitude of some of the police. No heavy lifting and little incentive to follow the series.