The Eyes of a Wolf - James LePore

THE EYES OF A WOLF is James LePore's second thriller novella about Zevon Evans, an Iraq War vet with brain damage, a metal plate in his head, and enhanced skills that mostly involve killing. But it's actually a prequel to the first book, so you can start with it and follow things just fine. That's actually what I did.

In this one, Zev gets a call from the doctor who put him back together after he was wounded. She's in trouble, so he doesn't hesitate to fly across country to San Diego to help her—only by the time he gets there, she's missing. Zev has resources to help him, though, and recruits others, and soon he's on the trail of some dangerous conspirators engaged in a deadly scheme that reaches across the border.

Zev is a very likable narrator/protagonist, despite his penchant for violence, and LePore manages to combine leisurely digressions into his character with terse, slam-bang action scenes. It's an approach that probably shouldn't work, but in the hands of an excellent writer like LePore, it does. I enjoyed this yarn enough that I immediately went and bought the first one. THE EYES OF A WOLF is a good, modern-day thriller that's not bloated and overwritten like so many these days. Recommended.

Gods and Fathers - James LePore

James LePore is one of my favorites among the current group of thriller writers, and his latest novel, GODS AND FATHERS, may be his best yet.

Matt DeMarco is a successful assistant district attorney in New York City, but his personal life isn't going nearly as well as his professional one. He's divorced, his ex-wife is married to a fabulously wealthy international businessman, and his college-age son can barely stand him. Matt doesn't hesitate to leap to his son's defense, though, when the boy is charged with the brutal rape/murder of his girlfriend. There's no doubt in Matt's mind that his son was framed.

Because of his position, Matt has to investigate the case unofficially, with some off-the-books help from friends of his in the law enforcement community, and his poking around reveals the fact that the case isn't nearly as simple as it appears to be at first. Instead it's tied in with an international conspiracy with roots that go back for years, and LePore does his usual masterful job of weaving all the plot elements together.

LePore's protagonists are always appealing: flawed but decent people who find themselves in over their heads, trying to make the best of dangerous situations. He has the storyteller's knack of moving things right along, as well. GODS AND FATHERS is an entertaining, well-written book, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Sons and Princes - James LePore

It’s been a while since I’ve read a Mafia novel. That’s not one of my favorite sub-genres. However, the other books I’ve read by James LePore have been very good, so I gave his new one, SONS AND PRINCES, a try.


It’s the story of Chris Massi, the son of legendary Mafia hitman Joe Black Massi, who as the novel opens has recently been murdered. Chris has more troubles than that, however. He has steered clear of involvement with organized crime despite his family heritage and the fact that for a time he was married to the daughter of Anthony “Junior Boy” DiGiglio, the last of the real Mafia dons. A U.S. attorney, a former childhood friend of Chris’s, has a grudge against him and has succeeded in getting him disbarred on some trumped-up charges. When his ex-father-in-law offers Chris the chance to take revenge on the man who ordered his father killed, Chris is very tempted to turn his back on his law-abiding existence and live up to his legacy.


That’s just the start of Chris’s problems. He becomes an unofficial private eye when he agrees to try to locate a missing woman as a favor for an old friend, and that leads him into a case involving drugs, snuff films, and associates of his ex-father-in-law Junior Boy. The plot gets extremely complex before everything is sorted out, with plenty of murders, double-crosses, surprising revelations, and suspenseful shoot-outs.


There’s nothing fancy about LePore’s prose, but he’s an exceptional storyteller, with that indefinable ability to keep the reader flipping the pages. He also creates believable, well-rounded characters and makes the reader care about them. A lot of books I read, I have a pretty good idea what’s going to happen in them. SONS AND PRINCES took me by surprise several times, and I always like that. If you enjoy organized crime yarns, I highly recommend it.

A World I Never Made - James LePore

Pat Nolan is a retired American construction engineer who is summoned to Paris by the grim news that his estranged daughter has committed suicide there. However, Nolan quickly discovers that the body in the morgue isn’t that of his daughter, who is evidently still alive and trying to get some sort of mysterious message to him. The Paris police and the French intelligence apparatus also appear to be quite interested in whether or not Megan Nolan is still alive, and if so, where she is.

James LePore’s debut novel A WORLD I NEVER MADE is the story of Pat Nolan’s investigation into his daughter’s life in Europe, and naturally, the deeper he digs, the more complicated – and dangerous – things get. It’s not giving away too much to reveal that Megan was involved with a Saudi terrorist, since LePore uses parallel storylines to flash back to the events over the year leading up to the call that told Pat Nolan his daughter was dead.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started reading this book, since it’s a first novel from a publisher I wasn’t familiar with, but what I got was a well-written thriller with a likable hero and interesting characters. Pat Nolan reminded me a little of another two-fisted American construction engineer, Matt Erridge, who appeared in a number of globe-trotting adventure novels by the prolific Aaron Marc Stein. (I know some of you have probably never heard of Stein, but he was a good solid mystery author worthy of rediscovery.) LePore keeps the pace moving along briskly and saves one last surprise for the epilogue, which is always a good thing as far as I’m concerned. A WORLD I NEVER MADE is a fine novel, and I’ll be keeping my eyes open for future books by James LePore.