Book Review x 2

The multi-movie review went so well, I thought I'd try a multi- book review. Though, these books are both great and could get their own review.

"The Pawn" by Steven James is the first book in the Patrick Bowers series. Patrick Bowers is an FBI agent who specializes in environmental profiling. Basically, his theory is that criminals have patterns and go through the same things as normal people do, so by looking at the patterns of the crimes, one can identify where and who the most likely criminals are. I'm not doing it justice...trust me it's cool.

In "The Pawn", Bowers is called to North Carolina to track a serial killer who leaves a Pawn with each body. The killer, called "The Illusionist" is murdering young women throughout the Asheville, North Carolina area. Once Patrick Bowers is on the case, The Illusionist steps it up a notch, and Bowers fears that he has finally met his match. Complicating things is that 2 of the murders seem out of place, and Bowers is still struggling with the death of his wife and his new role as father to her 17 year old daughter.

I really enjoyed this book. Apparently it's by a Christian publishing house, and there are occasions in the book where Bowers is really seen to struggle with why God lets things happen the way they do, but it's not the focus of the book. The mystery kept me guessing until the end, and, well, I was wrong. If you like a good mystery, give "The Pawn" by Steven James a try.

"Ranger's Apprentice, Halt's Peril" is the 9th book in the Ranger's Apprentice series by John Flanagan. This time, Will, Horace and Halt are still on the trail of cult leader Tennyson. Unfortunately Halt gets poisoned by one of Tennyson's assassins. Can Will save his mentor and still stop the bad guy? You'll have to read to find out.

"Ranger's Apprentice" continues to be one of the most fun series I've read. It's not as good as "Percy Jackson" or "Harry Potter" but it's a good, fast paced read with really strong characters and nice stories.

I read on Wikipedia (so it must be true) that there are 12 books planned for this series. I'm thrilled about this. I knew there was at least one more book planned, and I was content with that, knowing that I could read these again with my kids. However, the potential for 3 new books makes me very happy.