The InterceptThe Intercept

by Dick Wolf
Hardcover, 387 pg
William Morrow, 2012

If you want suspense novel that serves as a love song to the Patriot Act and expansive police power, this is it. There’s a constant stream of thought here saying that police officers (especially in New York City) are better at foiling crime/terrorism than Homeland Security is. Of course, this is especially true when they’re not hampered by probable cause or any other constitutional protections as they are here.

The hero is super-cop Jeremy Fisk, an Arabic-speaking maverick with uncanny intuition and a stubborn streak that keeps him going while his superiors, the FBI and other Homeland Security officials are telling him that he’s wrong. He’s also a pretty dull character — most of the victims of the first stages of the terror plot, the other cops, the terrorists and even minor characters that are in only one or two scenes are far more interesting.

There’s a whole lot of data dumping and exposition in dialogue — usually to people don’t need to be told basic facts about their profession in every conversation, but here Wolf insures that happens. Wolf’s Law & Order series have a tendency to fall into this, but in this book it really seemed prevalent.

The big narrative twist that reveals the true nature of the terrorist plot was pretty obvious, and I saw it coming almost from the start. The only satisfaction I got from its reveal was that small sense of smugness that comes from being right about something you couldn’t care less about.

A well-paced, technically effective disappointment. Can’t see me coming back for Jeremy Fisk #2.

Below the stars here, I’ve added a spoiler-rich paragraph with one of my biggest gripes. Read on, if you don’t mind things soiled.

—–

2 Stars

—–

Spoiler-y Point: (and this is likely more on the publisher than on Wolf — but I don’t know)
Putting on the cover that this is “A Jeremy Fisk Novel”, and then focusing so much on Krina Gersten — and making her the far more interesting character — is a dumb idea. It pretty much mandates she’s killed at a critical moment. Which, not at all shockingly, she is. Wolf should know better, just sloppy story telling.