An independent novel review
I like it when an author sets his book in his home town,
especially when it’s a place that doesn’t normally get mentioned in much mass
media. The depth of knowledge comes through in the detail and that makes the
story that much more realistic. For me, even nicer that it’s a place I visited
a number of times, and where the geography is similar to the place where I grew
up.
But that’s not the important reason that I liked Doug Dorow’s
The Ninth District. It’s a terrific book, a thriller with a unique story and
believable characters.
The story:
Minneapollis
is the Ninth District of the Federal Reserve, where the US prints its currency;
the Federal Reserve has a big, very secure building in that city. No Federal
Reserve has ever been robbed, so it must present a huge temptation to robbers —
and to writers of heist thrillers.
Dorow
succumbed to the temptation and crafted this excellent yarn. It has all the
elements required for a heist story: a good plan, cliff-hanging suspense and
lots of detail about methods, setting, skills and contingencies. Dorow has
clearly done his homework.
He
also presents a number of excellent plot twists, particularly in the way the
villain anticipates the hero’s action. The book opens with the hero, Jack
Miller, watching a security video that shows a bank robber murdering a pregnant
woman unnecessarily. The murder and several minor bank robberies are all part
of the villain’s (whom the cops have dubbed “the Governor” for his habit of
wearing a face mask of a former governor of Minnesota) plan.
Strong characters
The
hero is FBI agent Jack Miller. He’s a sympathetic character. Separated from his
wife and child and trying to work on reuniting, he’s also working through the
transition from the young hotshot FBI agent to the veteran teaching the new guy
the ropes.
Far
too often, new thriller authors make their heroes way too heroic: the genius sharpshooter
who’s also a martial arts master, speaks ten languages and is irresistibly handsome.
Jack
Miller is flawed, fallible and far easier to identify with — and that makes him
much more interesting as a character, too. Sure, he’s smart, he knows how to
investigate cases, but he also reacts to threats against himself and his family
in believable ways.
The protégé,
Agent Ross, is also believable. He’s young, smart and eager for action — a
little too eager, sometimes, and his mistakes get him badly hurt.
Jack’s
wife, Julie, is well presented, as well. I wish, though, that she was a
somewhat larger part of the story.
The
villain, the Governor, is smart and ruthless, killing innocent women as part of
his plan to throw the cops off his planned heist. However, Dorow has possibly
tried too hard to make the villain appear mysterious and threatening. I would
have liked to see a little more detail about him, his background and his underlying
personality.
Smooth, competent style
Dorow is a professional writer of fiction and has earned all
those good reviews. He knows how to bring out the characters through words and
actions – showing, not telling. He know how to provide lots of detail about the
city, the environment and police procedures without bogging the story down – I
couldn’t stop turning pages (or swiping my finger across the screen of my
iPad).
There’s lots of action and suspense in The Ninth District, and
you want the good guys to succeed in not just the case, but their personal
quests, as well.
If you like thrillers, download The Ninth District right
now.
4*
The Ninth District on Amazon
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