City of Windows by Robert Pobi

Lucas Paige is an astrophysicist and a retired FBI agent called in to assist in an investigation when his former partner is murdered in City of Windows by Robert Pobi. A sniper has killed Page’s partner with a seemingly impossible shot in the middle of New York City. Paige has an ability to visualize trajectories that borders on the mystical.

Paige left the FBI after an incident that left him physically traumatized, losing an arm, a leg and an eye. His intellect remains fully intact. Paige is able to determine the location from which the shot came by visiting the crime scene, quickly visualizing angles, wind speeds and trajectories. He is reluctant to assist the FBI further, hoping instead to spend time with his second wife and their five foster children. When another seemingly impossible sniper shot takes down a second member of law enforcement, Paige reluctantly agrees to help with the investigation.

Although satisfied with both his career as a college professor and a novelist, he finds that the investigation mentally engages him in a way that he hasn't been in the 10 years since he left the FBI. Paige is prickly to begin with and becomes even more so when higher-ups in the federal bureaucracy steer the investigation towards a terrorism suspect. Paige feels there is a logic to the target selection that would point them towards the killer if only he could unravel it. The stakes continue to ratchet up as more victims fall. Paige’s allies within the FBI allowed him to pursue his theory. The action races towards an exciting conclusion as Paige susses out both the motivation and the next target.

The story moves along slowly for the first half of the novel as we are introduced to Paige and learn about his history and his family. The first couple of crimes spool out slowly as Paige and the rest of the FBI pursue their separate but parallel investigative threads. By the second half of the novel, the pace picks up quite a bit as the action comes faster. The motives and people behind the crime come into focus and events race to a thrilling conclusion.

Stephen Graybill narrates and while his character voices are distinctive, his choice for the voice of the main character, Paige, is a little dry and monotonous. This is especially noticeable in the slower first half of the novel. It is less of an issue in the exciting second half and conclusion of the novel.

This is a promising beginning to a new series and introduces a complicated and likable new character. Fans of thrillers and intellectual detectives will certainly enjoy this book.

I was provided a copy of this audiobook by the publisher.

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