Review & Giveaway!!! Opening Moves by Steven James

Opening Moves by Steven James

Patrick Bowers Files: Prequel

Penguin Group/Signet Select / 2012

Find on: Amazon, Goodreads, Christianbook

About the book:

In The Bowers Files novels, FBI Special Agent Patrick Bowers has stopped some of the most vicious serial killers ever imagined. Now, in the fifth exciting installment, author Steven James takes readers back to Bowers’s terrifying beginning. 

Milwaukee, 1995. In a city still reeling from the crimes of Jeffrey Dahmer, a woman’s body is found with the lungs removed. Local cops think a Dahmer copycat is on the loose. 

But Patrick Bowers, working as a homicide detective for the Milwaukee Police Department, sees from the timing and location of the crime that this is not a copycat at all, but a killer with an entirely different agenda. 

As he pursues the madman using his unique skills and ice-cold logic, Bowers finds himself thinking more and more like his demented prey. The problem is that the more he understands the killer’s mind, the more his own thoughts are being warped. And if he’s not careful he may not be able to recover his mind—or survive the case.

My rating:

My thoughts:

I think Opening Moves might be one of Steven James' most chilling and creepy Patrick Bowers book yet (although all of them are creepy in their own way).

I found Opening Moves very interesting and I loved getting to see Patrick Bowers in the way that we do and finding out more about this case (which was mentioned in other Patrick Bowers books).

The story was super suspenseful and (at times) very gruesome - even I had trouble reading it at times and I don't get creeped out by many books - so I'd only recommend this to people who like scary books and can take gruesome scenes. There were a few things I personally didn't like, including when someone said "oh my ***" and a few other edgy things. That said, I did love the story very much and am still giving it five stars because it was so great!

One thing I definitely have taken away from reading the Patrick Bowers series (and especially this book) is a reminder of how depraved humanity is and how we are all born sinners and in need of salvation which can only be found through faith in Jesus Christ. While Opening Moves does contain evil, it doesn't glamorize it or show it in a positive light.

Some of the crimes talked about in Opening Moves actually occurred in real life which made this book all the more chilling and (at times) hard to read. This book made me think, held my attention throughout, and there were a lot of twists I didn't see coming! A great read that, as long as you enjoy thrillers and don't mind some gruesome/violent scenes, I completely recommend! You don't need to have read the other books in the Patrick Bowers series first because this is considered a prequel.

After reading Opening Moves I now can hardly wait to read the next Patrick Bowers book, The King, which is set to release July 2013!

*I received a complimentary copy of this book for my review. I was not required to give a positive review, only my honest opinion - which I've done. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.*

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