The Hoover Print

A-J Entertainment Editor Robert Bitterli stretches history into a fictional plot line in his impressive first novel ''The Hoover Print, with readers glued to each page and perhaps unwittingly rooting for a crafty killer who gradually crosses one name after another off of a very short list after a series of assassinations take place in 1969. Law enforcement officials discover one of the late FBI director J. Edgar Hoover's fingerprints at the scene of each subsequent murder, with Bitterli making the readers privy to the killer's identity throughout. Any number of authors would be content with the focus on young, beautiful and deadly FBI agent Christine Peal and the bureau's search for this ''Hoover killer,'' as well as the many close calls and clever disguises and, ultimately, reasons behind a 30-year lust for revenge. Bitterli, however, grants his story further depth by expanding its boundaries, making the past as important as the present and unveiling the possibility of a heavily financed conspiracy that already has bought off lawmakers with the intention of soon controlling the leadership of entire countries. In effect, the killer who dominates Bitterli's pages becomes the lesser of two evils and the only chance for the current FBI to identify and stop conspirators before it is too late. It is an unusual approach a well-trained criminal as the story's hero made all the more remarkable by Bitterli's willingness to share information with the reader throughout. That is, the reader already knows most of the information being sought by law enforcement and, in the process, can't help but feel placed in the killer's shoes and empathize accordingly. Not that the killer isn't extremely well placed. The use of one of Hoover's fingerprints makes it obvious that FBI security has been breached, but no one on board has put together enough pieces of the puzzle to figure out that the apparent serial killer actually is reporting to work at the Hoover Building each day, asked to investigate her own crimes and eventually hoping that Hoover's long lost personal files will vindicate her own actions. What keeps readers turning pages is wordsmith Bitterli's ability to make the smallest details interesting down to weapon construction, the legal process and the small mistakes that often trip up even the most clever criminals and a growing desire to know specifically how a corrupt FBI director could possibly play a major role in a coup being set into motion three decades after his death. Read more