Is he or isn't he?

Title: Shock Wave

Author: John Sanford

Progress: 88%

Platform: Kindle

Amazon Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

NYT BS Hardcover List: #8 (former number 1)

Book 3 out of 107

The last 25% of Shock Wave isn't quite playing out as I predicted, which is a good thing.

At 75%, it seemed like it was a lock that Wyatt was the bomber, that he had used a paraglider to get into the Pye Pinnacle, and that he did it because the new PyeMart was going to devalue a big piece of property he owned. He stood to lose millions.

With all that put together, it seemed like Mr Sanford had set things up for a big chase scene with some big explosions.

We get a big explosion, but we don't get a chase. We get a stake out. We get following Wyatt around from his job to the movies to McDonald's to the movies. The tension doesn't come from the question of "Will they catch him?" but from "Is he really the bomber?" There is no real evidence that he is, just things that point his way.

Not sure Mr. Sandford is getting paid for product placement, but if he is, he is getting paid by Dunkin' Donuts, Starbucks, McDonald's, Applebee's, Target, WalMart, Home Depot, the movie Pirates of the Caribbean and a few others. However, it's really not about product placement. It's about what small towns look like these days, how they exist within a web of corporate chains. It's not social critique on Mr. Sanford's part, but his way of keeping it real.  

This section works because it's fun to ride around with Virgil, hear about his romantic problems, order Starbuck's with him, and spy on the suspect. It's not blood pressure raising stuff, but it does feel real. It feels like what an extended stake would feel like. It feels kind of like fishing (and fishing is discussed a lot in this book), with pleasant moments passing pleasingly by until you get a few moments of high excitement.

The stake out does indeed include a bit of high excitement. An explosion, obviously.

Even after that, the mystery persists. Is Wyatt the guy or not? There is still a mystery to figure out. At this point, after this much set up, I have to predict that Wyatt isn't the guy. He is now feeling like a big red herring. For some reason, I think maybe, just maybe, it's another character who has been in the background, and who now seems like a shotgun that hasn't gone off yet. 

I'm going to guess Thor. Or at least, I'm going to guess more is going on with Thor than the minor comic relief he provides every once in a while.

So what have we learned? We learned that you can make compelling scenes by stringing together mundane, real-feeling moments, just so long as the character's goal is clear and interesting. And we learned that Mr. Sanford really likes Starbucks (me too!) but isn't crazy about Pirates of the Caribbean.