Shock Wave by James Born
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

The very beginning of James O. Born’s “Shock Wave” read like an average thriller. As the plot progressed though, it became less and less believable, and the writing became inane and free of any depth.

The novel reads like a very young teenager’s vision of how FBI or ATF agents and police detectives work. The actions of cliché characters are psychologically improbable. The motivations of various fake conflicts between the characters are contrived. The procedure in this apparent “procedural” is totally implausible, which is not good if we consider that Mr. Born is supposed to work for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE). The agents/detectives/officers behave as if they were private investigators. Their relationships are juvenile. They pull pranks on each other during surveillance jobs. The ending is so ridiculously absurd that it has been painful to read. To sum it up, “Shock Wave” is a long way below mediocre.

One star.


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