Review: Crime and Punishment in the Land of Wealth
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 2, 2014
Rick Soper has written an ambitious, genre-crossing thriller here. Beginning with the gruesome discovery of a burning body on the Carmel beach, multiple stories are set in motion, and Soper's skill keeps each moving deftly ahead. Of particular interest to me is the flawed FBI agent Jon Stevens, having read two earlier works about him. Agent Stevens sometimes pushes things a little farther than you want your public servants to, but he's at a point where rules and playing nice are not as important to him as saving lives.The chilling, hinted-at summation of the burned body mystery caught me off-guard. I truly didn't see it coming, and I don't say that often.THE ROCK STAR is clearly the first installment of a larger series. If you like big-cast, high-stakes drama, check this one out.