Vapors

George Hebert

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

Kirkus Reviews

It's about corruption in high places, it's about the FBI, it's about undying love, but most of all it's about people shooting other people. Hotshot engineer Peter Jamison is in trouble. His major project at Dillon Aerospace has been abruptly aborted, and he doesn't know why. But he thinks Melissa Corley does. She's very smart and works for a citizens' coalition that monitors the industry. She's also very beautiful, and Peter loves her to distraction. Melissa convinces Peter that Dillon Aerospace is evil and that they owe it to America to blow the whistle on these devils. The two amass a dossier of villainous behavior and turn it over to feisty Senator Drummond, who heads the Senate Armed Services Committee. But now Dillon, alerted, stands ready to retaliate. Jack Kane, head of the company's security operation, may be the best fighter in the whole world. Moreover, he has all manner of hired guns at his disposal and sends out a stream of them to silence Peter. Bad move: Jack should have gone himself. Though he's 47, Peter has forgotten none of the lethal skills he learned in Vietnam 30 years ago. He beats up on the mercenaries, kills a few. In the meantime, Melissa has been arrested by rogue elements in the FBI for reasons not absolutely clear. Peter, desperate to free her, gets help from tried-and-true elements in the FBI. Additional fire- and fist-fights follow; more bodies are rendered dead in a variety of gore-drenched ways. At length, Peter rescues Melissa, who turns out (alas) to have character flaws. Other good guys have also somehow become bad guys, and those among them left alive go to jail. DeMott (Walking K, not reviewed) has little to offer thriller aficionados other thanimplausible characters, clumsy dialogue, unlikely plot twists, and violence, violence, violence. (First printing of 40,000; $200,000 ad/promo; author tour) .