May 1, 2014
Fragmented
Author: George Fong
Can a retired FBI agent write? George Fong's Fragmented
answers the question. Mr. Fong brings his twenty-seven year career and
experience, as an FBI special agent, to the pages of his first book like it was
the field report for a real kidnapping. He weaves a complex story that takes
the reader from Sacramento, California to Los Angeles and back as Special Agent
Jack Paris chases down prison escapee Alvin Cooper. Cooper, convicted for
killing his own family five years earlier, slips out the minimum-security
prison and within hours a young girl is kidnapped. Paris is certain that Cooper
is behind it but can't prove it. A tenuous connection is made through child
pornography but demonstrating the connection is difficult. The clock is ticking
because Paris, who has dealt with child kidnappers before, knows that every
hour that passes is possibly one less hour to find the child alive. Mr. Fong employs
this well-used thematic vehicle to great effect, especially when the child's potentially
fatal medical condition becomes known.
The story focuses on the dark and seedy world of pornography,
especially those levels that deal with children. The title for the book comes
from the fragmented files that remain after someone tries to destroy the
evidence left on a computer's hard drive, nothing but fragments of files are
left. And like the fragmented case that Jack Paris faces, nothing cohesively comes
together until the last pages of the book. The events of the story span just
four days, but are built on a strong backstory that developed five years
earlier when the Paris helped send Cooper to prison. From day one the reader is
slowly emerged into the dark miasma of disturbed men and their perverse and
abhorrent behaviors, where people and things aren't what Special Agent Jack
Paris believes they are.
Fast paced and sharp, Mr. Fong has succeeded in crafting a
tight well written story that leaves you wondering what his follow up book will
be like. And, yes, I expect a second book, the characters he has developed are
strong and likable and work well together. And other than some minor editing
issues the book is well produced. Welcome George Fong to the exciting world of
thrillers, killers, kidnappers, and honest cops or as in this case FBI Special
Agent Jack Paris.
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