Vapors

At times, even the main characters in Vapors seem to need a program to keep track of who's on whose side - and that includes the those with FBI arms and credentials. But this uncertainty, often excruciating, accounts for much of the high voltage of Wes DeMott's new political thriller, to use the phrase on the title page. Reader interest is pumped higher still by an awareness that the author, a former FBI agent himself, is on familiar territory when he writes of criminal intrigue and the swirl of emotion and high-tech violence an investigation can stir up. Graphic violence sears one page after another, and while much of it makes sense, some of the blood-spurting, eye-gouging mayhem seems hard to justify. The book would be just as gripping without it. Vapors comes to the bookstores with something of a surprise bonus. A turn of the page after the haunting airport finale in which Jamison and Melissa look hard into the future and fade from view - sends the reader into two more chapters of suspense. These are lifted from the opening scenes of DeMott's next book, Heat Sync, a novel involving a runaway presidency. From the sample, the new story looks to be as riveting as the book in hand. Which will be saying something. — The Virginian-Pilot