Placebo

PlaceboSteven James. Revell, $14.99 trade paper (416p) ISBN 978-0-8007-3425-1; ebook ISBN: 9781441240088Presto! The Bowers Files disappear and James’s new series explodes onto the fiction stage with Jevin Banks, an escape artist who tragically loses his family and his nerve for his craft. Now he uses his background as an illusionist to debunk fake psychics and televangelists by replicating and exposing what they do on his television show. When he and his sidekicks, Charlene and Xavier, delve into a pharmaceutical company’s research into mind-to-mind communication and therapies that could radically extend life, the worlds of big drug companies, counter-terrorism, and government collide.James’s brand of high-end suspense distinguishes itself as Christian through characters that stare evil in the face and don’t back down because of their faith, despite doubts and confusion. The writing, pacing and plot lines are impeccable, the author always pulling up the shade a bit for a shaft of light and redemption to make gruesome scenes somehow bearable. Much isn’t fully resolved, but that’s why readers like series and are happy to let money vanish and reappear in the pockets of masterful novelists like James. (Nov.) Reviewed on: 09/24/2012