Douglas Dorow's The Ninth District

Dorow's The Ninth District is a suspense thriller about a bank robber and an FBI agent.  Anyone who has read or watched a suspense thriller has seen one with a heroic FBI agent that saves the day, right?

The Ninth District is unique in a few ways.  The point of view switches back and forth between the perspectives of Special Agent Jack Miller and The General, the-crazy-killer-bank-robbing-mastermind.  Through alternating perspectives, Dorow builds character and allows the reader to get to know the characters.  He also fills the reader in on plot clues, at the just the right times, which allows the reader to fill in pieces of the plot.

Earlier I said that he builds character.  You do get to know all the characters really well, except for The General.  As the reader, I would like to explore more of The General's motivation and even his psychological health.  Why did he shoot and kill a pregnant woman? What about his life made him so heartless?

Maybe I wasn't reading closely, but I'm hazy on how the FBI agents learned the identity of The General.  Miller comes to the realization of what TG is after on a family outing.  When he calls his partner Ross, we learn that the FBI already had information on TG. And then we are all of a sudden have a search warrant and we are in TG's apartment..... I really wish that detail wasn't left out, as Dorow takes so much care to include all the other necessary details.

Overall, it was a nice break from some of the other genres I have been reading lately.  I wasn't at all disappointed, and I downloaded two more suspense thrillers.

Thanks, Doug!