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22nd out of 206 books
—
136 voters
The Bishop (The Patrick Bowers Files #4)
by
Steven James (Goodreads Author)
FBI Special Agent Patrick Bowers's cutting-edge 21st-century geospatial investigative techniques and impeccable logic have helped him track some of the country's most grisly killers. But those skills are pushed to the limit in this new installment of the highly-acclaimed, award-winning The Bowers Files series.
This time it's a congressman's daughter who is found dead even...more
This time it's a congressman's daughter who is found dead even...more
Paperback, 523 pages
Published
August 1st 2010
by Fleming H. Revell Company
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Aug 02, 2010
Lisa
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
anyone who likes Robert Ludlum
Shelves:
inspirational-novels
Woo-hoo- my new favoritest thriller author.
If only Patrick weren's such a GUY I'd give five stars.
My real review comes next Monday.
I'm definitely getting the rest of the books.
So many authors...so little time.
My review:
Move over, ghost of Robert Ludlum! Meet Steven James, who has published a number of novels which are new to me.
In The Bishop, fourth in the Bowers files series, FBI Special Agent Patrick Bowers is called upon to use his keen wit to unravel a serial killer’s path of morbid and un...more
If only Patrick weren's such a GUY I'd give five stars.
My real review comes next Monday.
I'm definitely getting the rest of the books.
So many authors...so little time.
My review:
Move over, ghost of Robert Ludlum! Meet Steven James, who has published a number of novels which are new to me.
In The Bishop, fourth in the Bowers files series, FBI Special Agent Patrick Bowers is called upon to use his keen wit to unravel a serial killer’s path of morbid and un...more
Author tries so desperately to squeeze as many plots as possible, but most of them feel under-cooked. But what I don't like most is the very many different reasons that he tries to provide, for why the killer(s) kill. Why does the killer want to punish those who play God? There is only tenuous, tangential link between the first killing, the research facility, and the senator, as with the killings now in relationship to the assassination six years ago. The whole plot on the custody fight and the...more
Imagine my surprise after reading all the Patrick Bower series by Steven James and in wanting to write a review of the books, to discover that this series is labeled as being published by a Christian publisher, as well as authored by a Christian...ergo, the Patrick Bowers series is labeled Christian Fiction. I'll tell you this, as an atheist, I didn't have a clue (not even a suspicion) of this throughout my reading of these novels.
Now, now, I am not implying that good Christian fiction doesn't e...more
Now, now, I am not implying that good Christian fiction doesn't e...more
The 4th in the Patrick Bowers series. Yes, it was over 500 pages long but it took me less than a week to read it. Patrick and Tessa are in Virginia for the summer so Patrick can teach at the FBI Academy in Quantico. While there, a congressman's daughter disappears, as well as other "grisly" murders. To add to the stress, Tessa's biological father is trying to get custody of her and Patrick is faced with both of his love interests working with him on the task force. Through the series of books, t...more
THE BISHOP, book four in the Patrick Bowers Thriller series, continued the pace of the previous three, while upping the ante with intensity and an even darker undertone, if that is possible. We meet the murderous duo on the very first page, and follow them through their bizarre and psychotic killing spree. While trying to piece together the clues Bowers unearths, I found myself swaying from one possible suspect to another. With so many twists and turns, red herrings and rabbit trails, I wasn’t a...more
I was blown away last year when I read THE KNIGHT by Steven James and have been looking forward this book since then. Of course by the time I started reading it I had read over 200 other books so I was a little hazy on the details. Not to worry, Steven does a great job of bringing it all right back and more. I suddenly remembered why I loved the THE KNIGHT so much - Steven James is a brilliant writer! His characters explode off the page while his storylines are unbelievably believable and the su...more
Wow...This was another great suspense by Steven James. As I was reading, I kept stopping to tell my husband what was happening. I would put the book down and start with something like "this is fascinating, listen..." or "I wonder if they do that, it makes so much sense!"
Patrick Bowers is now in DC with his stepdaughter, Tessa. He is called in on a new case, working with Lien-hua and Cheyenne, both of his love interests. Patrick is facing a couple of big personal trials, and the case does not see...more
Patrick Bowers is now in DC with his stepdaughter, Tessa. He is called in on a new case, working with Lien-hua and Cheyenne, both of his love interests. Patrick is facing a couple of big personal trials, and the case does not see...more
Wow! When I first picked up this book, I was a bit apprehensive. To tell you the truth, I love thrillers, but Christian thrillers tend to be a bit boring, not too many people get brutally murdered and if they do the detail that makes CSI/Criminal Minds addicts like myself tick is left out. Thankfully, Steven James does not blush or shy away from gore. Instead he readily and openly describes a real-world situation and then through his character's dialog brings about views on God that are entirely...more
A woman and two cops are dead. Then college student, Twana Summie is found mauled to death by some primates at The Gunderson Foundation Primate Research Center. Lastly, Congressman Fischer’s daughter Mollie is missing and feared dead as well.
FBI Special Agent Patrick Bower is called on the case. Bowers may have met his match with this case. It appears that every time that Bowers gets close to the killers, he misses them. Bowers wants to put a stop to the killers but can he before the body count...more
FBI Special Agent Patrick Bower is called on the case. Bowers may have met his match with this case. It appears that every time that Bowers gets close to the killers, he misses them. Bowers wants to put a stop to the killers but can he before the body count...more
Title: THE BISHOP
Author: Steven James
Publisher: Revell
ISBN 978-0-3007-3302-5
August 2010
Genre: Fiction/Suspense
One of my favorite “arm-chair” reads has always been the cases of Sherlock Holmes. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created the quintessential detective, who always saw the details that everyone missed, and grasped the significance of those details as he ran his nemesis “to ground.” Two issues have always bothered me with these mysteries: the reader is never given the details that Sherlock Holmes...more
Author: Steven James
Publisher: Revell
ISBN 978-0-3007-3302-5
August 2010
Genre: Fiction/Suspense
One of my favorite “arm-chair” reads has always been the cases of Sherlock Holmes. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created the quintessential detective, who always saw the details that everyone missed, and grasped the significance of those details as he ran his nemesis “to ground.” Two issues have always bothered me with these mysteries: the reader is never given the details that Sherlock Holmes...more
As with the previous Bowers novels, this story is well written and interesting with twists along the way. If I was reviewing the story alone it would be a 4-star review, however, there are some glaring problems that I can't ignore.
Mainly, it's everything except the story's plot and twists. The character of Bowers is starting to irritate me as he is supposedly intelligent yet cannot have a conversation with his (equally whiny) daughter without either being angry and shout at her, or be cloyingly...more
Mainly, it's everything except the story's plot and twists. The character of Bowers is starting to irritate me as he is supposedly intelligent yet cannot have a conversation with his (equally whiny) daughter without either being angry and shout at her, or be cloyingly...more
I discovered Steven James's writing through ThrillerFest 2010. A friend swears by his books and I was excited to meet him and glad for the chance to review his latest book, The Bishop.
James' lead detective is very much a hero. He has extraordinary skills, exceptional intellect, a sense of humor, a good heart - and is not so smart at love. He is drawn to beautiful, driven women but gets into these tricky situations as he tries to see "how things go." He has a stepdaughter whose intelligence and...more
James' lead detective is very much a hero. He has extraordinary skills, exceptional intellect, a sense of humor, a good heart - and is not so smart at love. He is drawn to beautiful, driven women but gets into these tricky situations as he tries to see "how things go." He has a stepdaughter whose intelligence and...more
The description on the back cover of this book says that The Bishop is a “story for readers who are tired of timid thrillers.” I can’t really say that I am tired of timid thrillers because I don’t read many of them to begin with, but I sure do like a book that gets my heart going. The Bishop got my heart going. That statement on the back of the book is very accurate. Now, this book may not be for the faint of heart. It does have a good amount of graphic violence, but I was not bothered by it too...more
After closing the last page on The Knight, I couldn't wait to pick up book four of the Patrick Bower Files, The Bishop. True to form, another tightly written, and superbly plotted tale unfolds, with more than on a few moments of "Did he really just do that!!"
This time around - we have Astrid and Brad (as we first meet them) a couple for whom death and fear go hand in hand. From death by chimp through to some rather unfortuate use of personal luggage at a hotel storage room, this is one of those...more
This time around - we have Astrid and Brad (as we first meet them) a couple for whom death and fear go hand in hand. From death by chimp through to some rather unfortuate use of personal luggage at a hotel storage room, this is one of those...more
Aug 05, 2010
Molly
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
everyone
Recommended to Molly by:
Revell
Shelves:
book-review
I'm going to start this review off with a small complaint: this is book 4 and now I want all the others in the Patrick Bowers series! Other than small minor complaint, I LOVED this suspense novel. Steven James' writing style is astronomical! I was instantly captured and reminded of James Patterson thrills with Alex Cross mystery. WOW!
From the start I was pulling into the twists and turns of amazing crime solving suspense. It was a feeling of HAVING and NEEDING to know RIGHT NOW what happens nex...more
From the start I was pulling into the twists and turns of amazing crime solving suspense. It was a feeling of HAVING and NEEDING to know RIGHT NOW what happens nex...more
A very solid series written by a fantastic author who bangs out another winner. In The Bishop we see some old friends coming together again, well maybe not quite friends. Perhaps adversaries would be a better word. James did start to play the name game towards the end. This is what I call it when the author attempts to mask the real killer/killers by throwing a smoke screen of names plucked from all areas of the book. This seems to tangle the end a bit, at least for me it did. The ending gets so...more
Another well-done thriller! When I first started it, I was afraid The Bishop would, like the series predecessor The Knight, be overly focused on the belligerent, mouthy teenage stepdaughter that irritated me to the point of giving that book only 4 stars (to be sure, she's got problems, but speaking as a parent, there's a point at which enough is enough). In this book, however, things seem to be working out much better on that front. Once again, I'll advise reading the series featuring FBI agent...more
I listened to the last three books in this series back to back, something I rarely ever do. But I slowly got hooked by Mr. James. I have to say that begining with the "The Pawn", each of these books got better and better. Yes they are a bit fanceful, and yes, even the best FBI serial killer tracker, solve, extrodinare would ever encounter these types of hidious crimes much less solve them, somehow they pull you in and keep you going.
This series is labeled as "Inspirational" and there is quite a...more
This series is labeled as "Inspirational" and there is quite a...more
Completely forgot that this book was coming out in August and stumbled upon it in an automatic recommendation from my Kindle account. It continues where it left off in book 3 of the series and of course, the ending to this book leaves room for book 5 (The Queen) due out in the summer of 2011. Such a long wait.
Back to the book... it's probably the better one of this series although all are thoroughly enjoyable. A good who-done-it book and links just about every major character involved in some sh...more
Back to the book... it's probably the better one of this series although all are thoroughly enjoyable. A good who-done-it book and links just about every major character involved in some sh...more
How long has it been since you’ve picked up a book you literally could not put down until you finished every last sentence of the epilogue? The Bishop by author Steven James is that book for this year.
Book four in the Bowers Files starts off with a disturbing scene like the jerk of a roller coaster as you head to the first big hill. In Steven James fashion, our hero, FBI Special Agent Patrick Bowers, is pulled into another thrilling mystery pitting his unusual investigative techniques against p...more
Book four in the Bowers Files starts off with a disturbing scene like the jerk of a roller coaster as you head to the first big hill. In Steven James fashion, our hero, FBI Special Agent Patrick Bowers, is pulled into another thrilling mystery pitting his unusual investigative techniques against p...more
"The Bishop" is a fast-paced forensic/detective suspense novel. This is the fourth book in the series. Though you can follow what's going on without reading the others first, you'll probably understand it better if you start with the first novel, "The Pawn." Also, reading this novel spoils the "who-done-it" mystery in several previous novels, so you'll want to read the others first if you plan to at all.
The novel had a somewhat bleak tone. Several of the "killed by violence" bodies were describe...more
The novel had a somewhat bleak tone. Several of the "killed by violence" bodies were describe...more
This was the first book that I read in the series. Loved it so much that I searched for the first three and bought them to read. The story gripped me from the beginning and the style kept me in it. The one problem that I had with it when I first read was the mention of things that had occurred in the previous books, but soon remedied that by buying them all. Good ploy, Steven James. We are in the business to sell books.
They all fit together like the pieces on a chess board, but each book can be...more
They all fit together like the pieces on a chess board, but each book can be...more
I really don’t know where to start with my thoughts on this novel. The Bishop is my first Steven James novel but it certainly will not be my last. I was totally stunned by his creativity and his ability to weave elements of Christianity into his plotlines and characters’ thought process. The novel has more twists and turns than a double helix recumbent DNA molecule. I think I got that right, don’t hold me to it; you get my drift. There is a lot of science in the novel; I was just trying to go wi...more
Well, this book was total guilty pleasure, as a result I did not use my time as wisely as I could this weekend. I have never read a Patrick Bowers Mystery, and I appear not to have read the first books, so I have to go back. It was a very good read, I give it five stars and would have given it more if I could. An interesting book all the way through, combining family dynamics, serial killers, virtual lives, and a corrupt government system. You know, our usual everyday problems. I was kept guessi...more
Steven James' book, The Bishop, is the fourth in a series, however it works well as a stand-alone book. I never read books 1,2 or 3 so I can vouch for it as a stand-alone.
It's a book that begs you to neglect housework and sleep, a real page-turner, a riveting suspense.
FBI Special Agent Patrick Bowers is on a case of linked grisly crimes, committed "perfectly" and seamlessly. Each crime leaves hints of what the next crime will be. The test is deciphering the clues.
It's a brilliantly written thril...more
It's a book that begs you to neglect housework and sleep, a real page-turner, a riveting suspense.
FBI Special Agent Patrick Bowers is on a case of linked grisly crimes, committed "perfectly" and seamlessly. Each crime leaves hints of what the next crime will be. The test is deciphering the clues.
It's a brilliantly written thril...more
The Bishop by Steven James is the fourth book in the Patrick Bowers series. FBI agent and geospatial specialist Patrick Bowers returns with stepdaughter Tessa to track down a new killer who is framing innocent people for his crimes. Tessa's biological father makes a play for custody and Patrick finds that working with former girlfriend Lien-hua makes this case even more fraught with danger. James is an incredibly intelligent author who creates terrifyingly demented antagonists who Patrick has to...more
The Bishop by Steven James is much more than a thriller From the prologue until the last page the characters and twisting plot will make you want to read more and the finish will make you glad this is a series.
This is the fourth Bowers Files novel. I didn’t read the first three, wish I had. Steven James is an excellent author. He is new to me and I’m so glad I was able to read this book. The Bishop has over 500 pages, but the plot moves quickly. This book has short chapters, which I love. It is...more
This is the fourth Bowers Files novel. I didn’t read the first three, wish I had. Steven James is an excellent author. He is new to me and I’m so glad I was able to read this book. The Bishop has over 500 pages, but the plot moves quickly. This book has short chapters, which I love. It is...more
This series is growing on me. Think I'll start again with 'The Rook' and read it all the way through.
I'm liking the characters, the lack of sensationalism, the intelligence. These are not books that clobber the reader with brute-force Christianity.
Quite graphic. This title tackles the question of human nature...are we inherently good? or inherently evil?
Plus...I just figured out that this author, Steven James, is the 'Story' guy. I quite enjoyed Story: Recapture the Mystery - think I'll have to...more
I'm liking the characters, the lack of sensationalism, the intelligence. These are not books that clobber the reader with brute-force Christianity.
Quite graphic. This title tackles the question of human nature...are we inherently good? or inherently evil?
Plus...I just figured out that this author, Steven James, is the 'Story' guy. I quite enjoyed Story: Recapture the Mystery - think I'll have to...more
Book 4 in the series and gritty as ever. Start with Pawn (book 1) and you'll catch up.
FBI Special Agent Patrick Bowers's cutting-edge 21st-century geospatial investigative techniques and impeccable logic have helped him track some of the country's most grisly killers. But those skills are pushed to the limit in this new installment of the highly-acclaimed, award-winning The Bowers Files series.
This time it's a congressman's daughter who is found dead even as her killers launch a spree of perfect...more
FBI Special Agent Patrick Bowers's cutting-edge 21st-century geospatial investigative techniques and impeccable logic have helped him track some of the country's most grisly killers. But those skills are pushed to the limit in this new installment of the highly-acclaimed, award-winning The Bowers Files series.
This time it's a congressman's daughter who is found dead even as her killers launch a spree of perfect...more
'The Bishop' was so bizarre and strange. The killers were very creepy and the murder scenes gruesome. This all fit with the books story but it was still a little disturbing. I will say this again, Steven James is great at writing suspense that keeps my attention!
'The Bishop' has a crime seen where a woman is put alive in a Chimpanzee's cage to be eaten alive by Chimpanzee's - I found that disturbing. There are a lot of other murder scenes in this book but that is the one I remember the most.
The...more
'The Bishop' has a crime seen where a woman is put alive in a Chimpanzee's cage to be eaten alive by Chimpanzee's - I found that disturbing. There are a lot of other murder scenes in this book but that is the one I remember the most.
The...more
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Steven James has penned 25+ books spanning the genres of psychological suspense, prayer collections, dramas, monologues, a nine book series on creative storytelling for children’s ministry, YA fantasy, and inspirational. James has received wide critical acclaim for his work including four Storytelling World Honor awards, two Publishers Weekly starred reviews, 2009, 2011 and 2012 Christy Award for...more
More about Steven James...
Jul 29, 2010 05:38am