Book Review: The Execution by Dick Wolf

Posted March 7, 2014 by Karen in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

executionTitle: The Execution – A Detective Jeremy Fisk Novel

Author: Dick Wolf

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Date of Publication: January 7, 2014

Publisher: William Morrow/HarperCollins Publishers

Rating: 4.5 Out Of 5 Stars

Book Description

NYPD Detective Jeremy Fisk—introduced in Law & Order creator Dick Wolf’s New York Times bestselling debut The Intercept—must stop an assassin in the pay of a shadowy cartel in The Execution, a tense thriller that superbly blends suspense, politics, intrigue and high-flying action in the tradition of Vince Flynn, David Baldacci, and Robert Crais.

Ten days after the Mexican presidential election, twenty-three bodies are discovered beheaded on the United States border, each marked with a carving of a Hummingbird. Detective Cecilia Garza of the Mexican intelligence agency recognizes it: it is the signature of an assassin called Chuparosa. Garza has been pursuing the killer for years, yet knows little about him, except that he’s heading to New York—with the rest of the world.

It’s United Nations Week in Manhattan and Jeremy Fisk can’t let grief over a devastating loss keep him from safeguarding his city. Complicating matters is the startling news of a mass murder in nearby Rockaway—and the arrival of a disturbingly beautiful and assertive Mexican cop.

To have a chance at finding Chuparosa, these uneasy allies must learn to work together and fast. As they soon discover, there’s more to this threat than meets the eye—and that justice is not always blind.

Robbie’s Review

Detective Jeremy Fisk is at a low point in his life as author Dick Wolf continues the series with his latest offering, The Execution.  At the end of the first book in the series, The Intercept, Jeremy’s colleague and lover Krina Gersten is killed in the line of duty leaving Jeremy devastated and vulnerable.  Enter Commandante Cecelia Garza who has her own demons.  Driving her obsession with finding the assassin Chuparosa is the memory of the kidnapping of her mother and sister and frustration because the man she believes to be responsible died before she could kill him.

“Sometimes an artist has to wipe the slate clean before he can move on to a new period, a new style, a new . . .” She ran out of words for a moment, thinking back to her own artistic crisis when she’d been in college. She had wrestled for several years over whether to be an artist—and not a very good one—or to pursue law, something she found dry and uninteresting. From the vantage point of her present existence, it seemed like a foolish little adolescent crisis now. But at the time, she had been racked with turmoil. Only the abduction of her sister and her mother had brought clarity—had indeed chosen her path for her.

Please don’t judge me for wanting two attractive protagonists to find a way to get together.  Jeremy Fisk is a man who has lost his love and Cecilia Garza is a woman who is just lost….

Those dark, intent eyes . . . listening, actually listening, to every word she said. For years she had told herself that she was looking for a man who could look past her face, who could see the real Cecilia Garza. Not the Ice Queen. Not the cop. Not the beautiful woman. Past all of that.
And here he was. He’d looked past all of that, probed down into something underneath. And what had she done?
Thrown dirt in his face. Squandered it. Sabotaged herself.
Maybe the sad truth was that she truly did not want anyone looking into her soul. Maybe it was too late.

Will Fisk risk his career to assist an alluring woman in an investigation where he has no real jurisdiction and will Garza risk her career for revenge?

Fisk and Garza peel back one sordid layer after another until the mystery of Chuparosa is solved. But as the layers are peeled back the plot becomes more complex and secrets long dead come to light like open sores.  The author ingenuously fires short chapters at the reader like the staccato of gun fire to create tension as the story unfolds.  Readers who love mysteries and thrillers will love this book. There are so many plot twists and things that both you and the protagonists think are true which turn out to be wrong.   Yet somehow you will be able to keep it straight until the ending which initially seems anticlimactic, but turns out to be one of those “what just happened?” moments. If that statement seems confusing…don’t worry. Everything will become clear in the end, and the ending….oh my! Perfect!

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book directly from the author.  I was not paid to read or review this book.  All opinions are my own, and I was never influenced by anything or anyone.

0b2ee-addtogoodreads

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books-A-Million | Bookish | INDIEBOUND

About the Author

dickwolf

Dick Wolf, a two-time Emmy award-winning writer, producer, and creator, is the architect of one of the most successful brands in the history of television—NBC’s Law & Order, among the longest-running scripted shows. Wolf has won numerous awards, including Emmys for Outstanding Drama Series (Law & Order) and Outstanding Made-for-Television Movie (Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee); a Grammy; and an Edgar. He is the New York Times bestselling author of The InterceptThe Execution is the second book in his Jeremy Fisk series. He lives in Southern California.

Connect with the Author: Jeremy Fisk Facebook | HarperCollins

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.