COMES A HORSEMAN by Robert Liparulo

WestBow Press, November 2005

In America, a serial killer with wolf-dog accomplices is hacking off people's heads, while in Isreal, the fiendishly megalomaniacal Italian ambassador appears set on world domination. Caught in the middle are two FBI agents--Alicia Wagner, a techie who spends her time developing crime-scene gadgets, but who longs to be kicking butt in the field, and Brady Moore, a recently widowed single dad teetering on the edge of alcoholism who works as a criminal profiler and is downright uncomfortable with a gun.

Working as partners, these two are determined to catch the serial killings. But by following an obscure clue to a small church in New York, where an obscure priest researches Near-Death Experiences, they inadvertently call attention to themselves and soon find themselves the targets of determined and skillful assassins--and betrayed by one of their own. On their own, they have no choice but to follow the trail of clues all the way to the Vatican and to Israel ... if they want to live.

Comes A Horseman is an action-packed roller-coaster of a thriller in the style of The DaVinci Code, with sharply drawn characters and a plot almost too clever for its own good. A bit of a mark-down for wildly erratic point-of-view. While the book starts with numerous points of view, all of which the reader becomes invested in, partway through the book we narrow focus to only the FBI agents. I really wanted to know what happened to Pip, and the 12-year-old boy who narrowly escaped beheading. It just seemed like there were a few too many loose threads.

And then there was Coco. Animal lovers won't appreciate his fate.

Overall, COMES A HORSEMAN was a fun and engrossing read with a very satisfying ending. An exciting first-novel.

Three Stars

Reviewed 11/19/05

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