Author: Dick Wolf
Paperback: 387 pages (ARE version)
Publisher: William Morrow
Published date: January 2013
FTC: Requested to ARE to review
It's funny how my reading preferences shift and change over the years. A while ago I would have told you I prefer historical fiction and classics. While still true I've also fallen for more mysteries, YA books, dystopian stuff, fantasy, and sci-fi. For some reason Dick Wolf's new suspense series revolving around Jeremy Fisk, a detective in the NYPD Intelligence Division really caught my interest. If you are looking for a well-written beach read or airplane book this summer, you can't miss with this one.
Back of the book:
Days before the July Fourth holiday and the dedication of One World Trade Center at Ground Zero, an incident aboard a commercial jet over the Atlantic Ocean reminds everyone that vigilance is not a task to be taken lightly. But for iconoclastic New York Police detective Jeremy Fisk, it may also be a signal that there is much more to this case than the easy answer: that this is just the work of another lone terrorist.
Fisk—from the department’s Intelligence Division, a well-funded anti-terror unit modeled upon the CIA—suspects that the event might also be a warning sign that another, potentially more extraordinary scheme has been set in motion. Fluent in Arabic and the ways of his opponents, Fisk is a rule breaker who follows his gut—even if it means defying those above him in the department’s food chain. So when a passenger from the same plane, a Saudi Arabian national, disappears into the crowds of Manhattan, it’s up to Fisk and his partner Krina Gersten to find him before the celebrations begin.
Watching each new lead fizzle, chasing shadows to dead ends, Fisk and Gersten quickly realize that their opponents are smarter and more agile than any they have ever faced. Extremely clever and seemingly invisible, they are able to exploit any security weakness and anticipate Fisk’s every move. And time is running out.
My thoughts:
Sometimes books like these can be pretty generic: terrorist plot-line - check, New York City setting - check, time running out - check. But what stands out with Dick Wolf's debut novel is the writing. I've read some similar author/genre novels and they can be a bit simplistic: short simple sentences which rely on a lot of drama and action to keep you reading. Dick Wolf can actually write which made this novel a refreshing change for this genre.
The other thing that I enjoyed was the New York City setting. Ok, sometimes NYC settings can really annoy me. They can be so cliched and the characters really annoying. But I felt Wolf's NYC was authentic. I also found his descriptions of NYPD policies and policing post 9/11 to be fascinating. It's still amazing to me how much the world has changed in the last decade.
While I enjoyed Jeremy Fisk's character and more importantly his role within the NYPD, I felt that his character development was the only thing really lacking in the book. Considering this is the character upon whom a series is going revolve around, I don't feel like I really got to know him. I actually liked Krina Gersten better and kind of wished this was a Krina Gersten Book #1 novel instead of Fisk. I can only hope that future books in the series flesh out the character a bit more.
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