Review – Opening Moves

Steven James, best-selling author of “The Bowers Files” takes readers back to FBI Special Agent Patrick Bowers early years in “Opening Moves” the prequel that releases today, Sept 4th. There readers find Bowers working as a homicide detective, ten years before his career as an FBI Special Agent. 

James weaves fact and fiction together and uses 1997 Milwaukee, Wisconsin for his setting, just a few years after serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer’s cannibalistic “…kidnappings and mutilations…” paralyzed the city with fear. At the time, Bowers is a Milwaukee homicide detective involved in a gruesome case that mimics the work of Jeffrey Dahmer. While the homicide squad believes “…a Dahmer copycat is on the loose…” Patrick isn’t so sure.

The chilling story opens with Vincent Hayes, an ordinary man on a bizarre assignment that challenges him to his core, an assignment he isn’t sure he can complete—yet his choice is unthinkable which leaves him no choice at all.

Vincent had been careful to follow the explicit directions to the “New Territories Pub.” He knew he was to look for “…a young black man …athletic build…and it was supposed to happen at this bar…” What he didn’t know was whether he could do it.

Now he pulled the door open and stepped inside, his eyes sweeping the dim room. His fingers again touched the pills in his pocket as he crossed the room repeating to himself: “you can do this; come on, you can do this.”

Thus begins Patrick Bowers terrifying new thriller, this time with “…a killer who will stop at nothing to get his message out to the world…” whose irrational crimes may once again paralyze the city with fear. Join James in this fast-moving, intense thriller that has as many demented twists and turns as the crimes themselves to its unforeseen conclusion. 

The author writes with authenticity about grisly crimes, despicable evil, justice, hope and love without detailed scenes of blood and gore, use of gutter language or explicit sexual scenes. “…I never glamorize evil, make it look alluring…” says James in a TitleTrack.com interview. Instead, he shows “…there’s a redeemer who’s bigger than the evil we’re capable of…” 

In the C.J. Darlington, TitleTrack.com interview, James says he wrote “Opening Moves” to “show the genesis of his [Bowers] character…the traits he has…that foreshadow things…” he plans to deal with in future releases, “The King” and “Checkmate.” C.J. Darlington: www.titletrakk.com/author-interviews/steven-james-interview.htm 

The author admits “I had nightmares writing this book” in his note to readers.  While fiction narratives deal with imaginary evil, incorporating actual crimes didn’t “…afford him that option.”

I can’t recall reading a prequel to an established series before. Yet Darlington’s insightful interview provides insights into the author and his creation. Patrick Bowers, the man behind the badge, why he thinks and behaves as he does with a story that questions where sanity leaves off and insanity begins. If you weren’t a James fan before, you will be by the time you finish reading.

Back Cover Copy:

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’ terrifying beginning.

Milwaukee, 1997. In a city still reeling from the crimes of Jeffrey Dahmer, a series of gruesome kidnappings and mutilations draws authorities into a case like nothing they’ve ever seen. Cops think a Dahmer copycat is on the loose.

But Patrick Bowers, working as a homicide detective, suspects this is more than an ode to the infamous cannibal. When he discovers that the shocking acts reference some of the most notorious and macabre killers in our nation’s history, the investigation spirals into a nightmare of manipulation, brutality, and terror. 

Wielding groundbreaking investigative techniques, Bowers must now face off with a killer who will stop at nothing to get his message out to the world. Chilling, gritty, and packed with twists and turns, Opening Moves is Steven James’s most heart pounding novel yet.