First
Sentence: In my home state of New Hampshire, death certificates
are a formal-looking document, with a light watermark in the
center outlining the shape of our fair state.
Lewis Cole’s best friend, Police Detective Diane Woods,
was on duty at an anti-nuclear demonstration that turned violent.
Diane was singled out by a man who beat her so severely; she
now lies in a coma. Cole, formerly an analyst with the Department
of Defense, with the help of his friend, security consultant
Felix Tinios, is determined to find the man and mete out his
own form of justice. However, men who are willing to kill
are doing their best to stop Cole.
The first chapter starts by tugging at your heart, ends with
a bang. From there, the story rarely lets up. Dubois definitely
knows how to write action.
Dubois does create a strong sense of place. It’s clear
he knows Boston well. If the reader does, they will smile
at his reference to “the People’s Republic of
Cambridge.” West Coasters; think Berkeley. He does make
an interesting, and sobering, point about how fragile is our
power grid and the potential impact should it fail.
The protagonist, Louis Cole, is an interesting one. Yet if
one hasn’t read previous books in the series, it’s
difficult to see how he went from being a DoD analyst and
magazine writer to the character he is here. It’s nice
to think a friend would do anything for you, but this is a
bit extreme. Yet without his actions, we have no story.
Granted, I am reviewing from an Advanced Readers’ copy,
but I found there to be a considerably amount of repetitive
information. I shall hope further editing prior to the final
publishing will have corrected.
Fatal Harbor is suspense, exciting, and filled with very
effective plot twists; however, it also seemed a bit over
the top. Still, it was a non-stop and great as an airplane
or Sunday afternoon read.
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