A propulsive, old-school thriller that will have you turning pages at roughly the speed of light. A sniper is loose, targeting law enforcement in New York City during one of the most fierce blizzards on record, and it's up to retired FBI profiler - and current college professor - Lucas Page to track down the culprit. Pobi's gift of storytelling and characterization raise this novel to a whole other level.

Non stop action packed thrill ride of a book!! I really liked the depth of the characters and I could totally see this as a movie too. This book kept my attention 100% focused, and I totally enjoyed getting lost in it. Thank you for the chance to read this amazing book!

A sniper is on the loose in New York City. Lucas Page (former FBI) is called back to consult with the bureau. Lucas' magnificent mind and geometrical manipulation make for one powerful character.

Even with Lucas' own family in peril, he continues to consult with the FBI as the sniper works to "pick off" law enforcement personnel.

Another MUST READ! Lucas, Whittaker, and Kehoe are characters that are well-developed and fit well together. The plot is something different from what I normally read - but it is a sure winner!

Highly Recommend !!!

Many Thanks to St Martin's Press - Minotaur and NetGalley for a superb read !

Ok thriller lovers, listen up. There’s a lot of buzz around this book & I’m here to say you can believe it. This is a cracking read that delivers. Tense action, intricate plot lines, a frighteningly efficient killer & suspense that builds to a hair raising finish. It may sound like a stock recipe for any thriller but the reason this one succeeds so well is down to two things…..how the author blends those ingredients then tosses in a compelling & charismatic MC.

Dr. Lucas Page is a brilliant man with a unique ability. Once upon a time he was an FBI agent with a partner named Doug Hartke. That was before “the event” that ended his career & resulted in him losing a leg, an arm & one eye. Now he’s a mix of man & metal who spends his days teaching at Columbia University. The rest of his time is devoted to wife Erin & the 5 kids they foster. Until NYC Special Agent Brett Kehoe comes knocking.

Hartke is dead. He was sitting in downtown traffic when killed by a sniper. Kehoe needs Lucas’ brain & is willing to play the guilt card to get it. No one “sees” like Lucas. HIs gift is the ability to shut out the noise & reduce his surroundings to a series of vectors, angles & numbers to pinpoint where a shot originated. But when he visits the crime scene it becomes clear they’re not dealing with your garden variety sniper. The shot came from a distant roof top & should have been impossible.

As far as Lucas is concerned, it’s a one & done job. He’s well aware Erin is less than thrilled about him working with the FBI again & besides, he promised to devote the Xmas season to their herd of kids. Then another member of law enforcement is taken out in similar fashion. More will follow, each shot more unbelievable than the last. Lucas helps out but resists an official return to service until his family is targeted. Now it’s personal.

Holy Cats, buckle up people. This one will keep you on your toes. What follows is a riveting tale of the hunt for a highly skilled killer. Lucas & his colleagues must dig deep to discover motives & connections. There is a large & diverse cast of characters that add colour, humour & drama to the story. One standout is Whitaker, the agent assigned to Lucas. She’s a whip smart woman whose quiet demeanour masks a spine of steel. Good thing because while she may find Lucas’ abilities fascinating she’s less enamoured with his complete lack of social skills. Watching their relationship develop was one of the things I enjoyed most about this book.

But everything revolves around Lucas & he’s up for carrying the story. At work he’s terse, impatient & antisocial, sometimes with unintentionally humorous results. At home we get to see his softer side & through a series of childhood flashbacks we come to understand why he & Erin have created their unique family. It turns out he was once just like them, unwanted & moved around at the whim of social services. Another thing that is very well done are descriptions of his prosthetics & how they affect daily life.

It’s a great example of what sets this book apart from other thrillers. Yes, there’s plenty of action but it’s the personal details & characters’ histories that add the human element necessary for a reader to become truly invested. I ripped through this in a day & sincerely hope it’s not the last we’ve heard from Dr. Lucas Page. Recommended for fans of Daniel Cole or Jeffery Deaver’s Lincoln Rhyme series.

Wowza, what a book. I had to put it down five minutes every few chapters just to get my shoulders unhooked from my ears. Mr. Pobi knows how to hook his reader and keep him/her reading. I loved the main character, a doctor of astrophysics and a spatial number crunching brainiac; he's short on social niceties but definitely someone you'd want on your side. If you love police/FBI thrillers, then you need to pick this one up and spend some time immersed in this story. Heads up, contains some crude language but not excessive.

This was a terrific book- very exciting all the way through it. It is not for everyone as some parts are extremely technical and parts are very convoluted but all in all, a great read. The characters were fleshed out and believable. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me the opportunity to read and review this book.

This is the first of Pobi’s novels that I’ve read, and I was intrigued by the premise. Very quickly, it became clear that this is a very good novel by an excellent writer. I really enjoyed this, and I’ll definitely be reading more of Pobi’s work in the future.

Each of the characters in City of Windows is interesting and distinct. Even those who only appear briefly felt entirely real on the page: Pobi gives readers just enough details to give them a three-dimensional feel. For those characters who feature more prominently, you become invested in their fates, curious about their backgrounds and experiences. Even the sphinx-like Brett Kehoe, Page’s former boss and the special-agent-in-charge who ropes him back into the FBI fold: he recalls Thomas Gibson’s “Aaron Hotchner” in Criminal Minds.

Antagonistic Graves never felt like a cartoon or cliché cynical agent while butting heads with the outsider called in to help (Page). Whitaker, the specialist on domestic terrorism, becomes Page’s handler and their working relationship is great: her spooky ability to read what people are not saying, or about to say, offers an amusing foil to the purposefully withholding Page. I enjoyed seeing their friendship and respect develop — I think she’s my favourite character, followed closely by Dingo (Page’s friend who features prominently in the story, too).

Lucas Page is an interesting protagonist. After a horrific event in his past — a work-related accident or attack — he now has a prosthetic leg and arm, and is also missing one of his eyes. Page doesn’t allow his situation to get in the way of his work — he’s so driven, so single-mindedly focused on figuring out the puzzle. Pobi does a nice job of showing how Page has adapted his life to account for his prosthetics. Page also has a prodigious mind for mathematics, which is why the FBI comes to him — luckily for him, his intellect wasn’t affected by the accident (Pobi doesn’t give us many details about the event — perhaps saving them for a later novel in the series). Given the incredible shots taken by the sniper, Kehoe pulls Page back in to help locate the firing sites, and maybe crunch the data to help them discover the shooter’s identity.

Over the course of the novel, Pobi gives us some flashbacks from Page’s past — a foster kid, he was taken under the wing of a wealthy patron after his gift for mathematics and physics was uncovered at an early age. It an interesting and welcome bit of insight into what makes Page tick.

He and his wife foster a number of children — unlike in James Patterson’s Michael Bennett series, this side of the story is neither saccharine, nor schmaltzy. Page is giving back by giving these abandoned, abused kids a safe home and a new family. Pobi does a great job of writing the couple’s relationship, how they balance (and don’t) their various careers and responsibilities.

At times, this novel felt a little like a really good blend of Numb3rs and Criminal Minds. At the same time, Pobi has a real gift for setting a scene, describing places, people, and events in an evocative way without overdoing it. His prose is tight, flows brilliantly.

In addition to its gripping story, the novel also contains a fair amount of blunt commentary on American culture and politics. Through the use of various analogs, the author turns his sights on gun culture, survivalists, Fox News, and the NRA: he’s unsparing in his criticism, sharply puncturing the hypocrisies and madness that seems to drive so many of the American right’s entrenched beliefs and power-centres. Personally, I think he was spot-on in pretty much every instance.

Overall, this is a fantastic thriller. Highly recommended, I really hope there are more novels to come in the series.

Thanks to NetGalley for a Kindle ARC of City of Windows.

This was a pretty exciting read featuring a new character in the form of Dr. Lucas Page.

Lucas Page is a husband, father, and professor. He is also a brilliant scientist, former Federal agent, and half Robocop. He is enigmatic, does not work well with others, and hates stupid people.

He loves his wife, his adopted foster children and is very, very good at what he does, which is creating mathematical algorithms or something math-y like that. I'm not sure how he does it but he does it very, very well.

That's why he is called in by his ex-superior to investigate a case involving the sniper-related death of his former partner. Soon, more deaths occur and Page is reluctantly pulled into this baffling mystery that has its roots in a federal investigation that went terribly, horribly wrong years ago.

I really like Lucas Page, his gruff demeanor and his reticence in rejoining the FBI, that had a traumatic part in why Lucas is now half man, half Mega-man. But he can't deny that he misses the action, the thrill and the chase.

I like his wife, their loyal Australian neighbor, Dingo, and the Pages' extended and diverse family made up of troubled children blessed enough to find a forever home with Lucas and his devoted doctor/wife.

The short chapters add to the urgency and tension as the murders mount and Lucas finds himself racing against time to find the killer.

Add in bureaucratic politics, the safety of his family and idiotic colleagues (you just can't avoid them in any workplace environment), Lucas and his partner, Whitaker, will put their collective heads together to stop a murderer bent on revenge.

I look forward to the next book in this series featuring Dr. Lucas Page.

I'm between 4 and 4.5 stars.

When I was reading Robert Pobi's upcoming thriller City of Windows, I could hear what I imagined the movie trailer voice-over would be in my head. "Just when he thought he was out...they pulled him back in!"

New York City is hit by the worst blizzard in history. As a black sedan stops to allow a pedestrian to cross in front of it, an almost-impossible sniper shot hits the driver of the car in the head, killing him instantly, not to mention creating a grisly scene on the road in front of it. Given the car was at E. 42nd Street and Park Avenue, home to countless high-rise buildings, it is almost impossible to pinpoint the building from where the shot was fired, and the weather is wiping away any trace evidence that might help.

The FBI needs a miracle worker to help them figure out where to look. They turn to former agent Lucas Page, who left the Bureau after losing an arm, a leg, and an eye, and nearly his life. Given what he went through, he has no love for the FBI, and he has put that phase of his life behind him. He's tried to rebuild, as a college professor and an author, and he and his wife are foster parents to a fairly large brood of children.

The last thing Page wants to do—or his wife wants to allow him to do—is help the FBI. But he can't fight it, especially when he learns that the victim was his former partner, Doug Hartke.

Page has an uncanny ability to see trajectories, angles, and view the city landscape as a sort of geometrical landscape. His brain works in ways mysterious even to him, rapidly calculating figures, algorithms, and helping him solve the riddle of where the bullet was fired from. It's an ability he didn't lose, even after his injuries and the grueling recovery he endured.

"Lucas stood in the intersection, lifted his arms, and slowly rotated in place, absorbing the city in a numerical panorama that pulsed and danced and flashed through his head. He took in the numbers around him, feeding the data into a series of instinctive algorithms that even he did not understand. It was an immediate process, fired up with an automaticity he could not explain. It was like being at the center of a vortex, and the lines of code carpeting the landscape swirled around him at a speed too fast to absorb in any conscious way."

Hartke's murder is, sadly, just the tip of the iceberg. It seems as if every time Page solves a piece of the puzzle, everything changes again, leaving the FBI bringing up the rear, seemingly powerless to stop yet another murder with yet another miraculou sniper shot. Even though there are obvious similarities between the victims—each was in law enforcement—there has to be something more than that dooming them.

A reluctant man, hampered by the after-effects of serious injuries and immense resentment, is the FBI's only hope against a killer that seems to be taunting them. But the deeper Page digs, the more he uncovers, the more at risk he puts his family and himself. It's a race against time and the elements, and it could wind up with Page the victim once again.

I thought this was such a cool concept for a thriller. This was like a mash-up of that old television series Numb3rs with a touch of A Beautiful Mind (just the math genius part, not the schizophrenia) and a little bit of Jeffery Deaver's Lincoln Rhyme series thrown in for good measure, but in the end, this was a creation all Pobi's own.

Page is an absolutely fascinating character, and I was mesmerized by how Pobi described the way he thought and the way he worked. While there are certainly some clichés thrown in here, there is a tremendous amount of suspense, and the setting of the book definitely worked in its favor. Even though I joked about hearing the movie trailer voice-over in my head, I can absolutely see this being adapted into a fantastic movie.

At times I felt the book was a little more cerebral than I would have liked, but I still couldn't get enough of this story and Page's character. Just when I feel like so many thrillers feel like every other one, I find a book that proves me wrong. City of Windows is definitely one of those books.

NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Minotaur Books provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!

This book will be published August 6, 2019.

City of Windows is a good action mystery story. A retired agent, a math genuis who now has prosthetics, is recalled to help solve a string of murders. It involves people close to him. It's easier to understand the main character after some background information is given. Story is paced well and has numerous twists and turns to keep you guessing until the end. Overall a good read. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I greatly enjoyed this book. The supporting characters were even more delightful than the main man, the mathematical genius with the prosthetics. It was heartwarming to see that the main character had recognized that his seeming aloofness could be counteracted by having these others support him. The crime itself was not as surprising because Americans have become numbed to outrageous mass shootings, it seems. This is a great story for our times.

Robert Pobi has written an excellent thriller introducing Lucas Page who is a brilliant character in an engaging plot.

The star of this fast-paced thriller is Lucas Page, a retired FBI specialist who now sports a prosthetic eye, arm, and leg and thought he’d be left alone to quietly raise his house full of foster kids. When a sniper is targeting law enforcement officers, making impossible shots on moving targets, Page is reluctantly called back into the line of duty. Page was a precocious child who performed graduate-level math at an age when he should have been racing Big Wheels. His unique mathematical skills are needed to analyze the few scant clues in these shootings.

A fast-paced read that might be the start of a new series. Many thanks to the publisher for providing a copy for review.

Dr Page has a life he enjoys.....teaching at the university and creating a family with his wife and foster children. He planned to leave his past behind, the time with the FBI which left him with a replacement leg, arm and eye.

His ability to absorb and mathematically calculate crime scenes brings FBI to his door to solve the shooting of an FBI agent. The fact the dead man is Pages former partner draws him into the storm. A blizzard. Revenge. And time running out.

I enjoyed the story and pace. It helped to understand Dr Page better after the childhood flashbacks. The plot kept me guessing. Great resolution to the crime.

If you like action novels, this should be at the top of your list!

This review is from an ARC provided by Netgalley.

Incredibly tense, fast-paced thriller. My first Pobi novel, and I plan to grab some others. The plot is excellent and quite unpredictable. Excellent (and sometimes funny) dialog and an excellent build-up and ending. This one will probably linger in mind for at least a few days, and probably longer. Highly recommended.

I really appreciate the advanced copy for review!

A fabulous thriller! Top-notch writing style, with a beautiful, cinematic atmosphere in place descriptions, and an utterly singular, alluring wounded hero.
“City of Windows”, by Robert Pobi, is a gripping, suspenseful read, with fabulous characters, characterization and setting, and a tight, cohesive storyline.
Lucas Page is the most fascinating, low profile, wounded hero I’ve read recently. He’s a complex character, a superior mind living in a scarred body; lacking some social skills, yet incredibly tender and sweet with his family and warm and caring to friends (I just hope Dingo will have his own story).
He’s matter-of-fact with the missing parts and adapted to his new body – treats I found fascinating; and I also liked that the contents of “The Event” were never revealed. Still, I would have liked more details about his physical appearance.
I also liked how Lucas’ domestic life is interwoven throughout the narrative.
The descriptions of Manhattan and snowy, frigid landscapes, creating sometimes a whimsical atmosphere, the vivid crime scenes depictions, and the social and political satire make this a fabulous thriller.

Five Stars. This is one smart read with a protag unlike any other. I don't know if Mr.. Pobi has written anything else, but I'm for sure going to find out. And have my fingers crossed that there will be more from him, especially hoping there will be more with some of these very same characters.