If you are a lover of thrillers, especially thrillers involving forensics, medicine or technology and you like it spiced up with a bit of science, then this book review blog is for you.
This what your A-Thrill-A-Week Blog Ad will look like to visitors! Of course you will want to use keywords and ad targeting to get the most out of your ad campaign! So purchase an ad space today before there all gone!
Toni Dwiggins has recently released the fifth book in her Forensic Geology series, River Run. This is an unique forensic thriller series in that the forensic sleuths are geologist. The latest addition takes us into the heart of the Grand Canyon. Forensic geologists Cassie Oldfield and Walter Shaws investigate one way: trouble on the canyon’s...
Toni Dwiggins has recently released the fifth book in her Forensic Geology series, River Run. This is an unique forensic thriller series in that the forensic sleuths are geologist. The latest addition takes us into the heart of the Grand Canyon.
Forensic geologists Cassie Oldfield and Walter Shaws investigate one way: trouble on the canyon’s Colorado River. Stranded raft. Life vests unused. Rafters missing.
Toni Dwiggins
The only clue to the fate of the rafters is a bag of pebbles caught by the bow line. Following that clue, the geologists uncover a hellish scheme. Not only are the rafters in peril, but the river itself is under attack.
The race to stop it takes Cassie and Walter deep into the canyon, and onto the mighty river, putting their own survival at stake.
The focus of my blog is to review book series and not individual novels. But writers are going to continue writing novels within a series even after I have done my review, so I plan on reviewing the individual novels as they come into circulation. Simon Beckett has recently added book #6, The Scent of Death,...
The focus of my blog is to review book series and not individual novels. But writers are going to continue writing novels within a series even after I have done my review, so I plan on reviewing the individual novels as they come into circulation. Simon Beckett has recently added book #6, TheScent of Death, to the David Hunter series.
There is nothing more wonderful for a thriller enthusiast, such as myself, to have the setting of a thriller to take place in a creepy psych ward or dilapidated hospital. Luckily for me, Simon Beckett’s the TheScent of Death does just that with an abandoned hospital know as St. James located in London, England. The remains of four bodies are found at the hospital just as it was destined to be torn down. Our hero, forensic pathologist David Hunter, is called in to take a look at the first victim that was found. When an unexpected accident happens while on the scene, a hidden room is exposed with two more bodies. Since it was unclear whether the two additional corpses were related in their deaths to the first body found, a second forensic expert is called in. Daniel Mears, who calls himself a forensic taphonomist, is young and arrogant and soon becomes a thorn in David Hunter’s side. As in any good thriller, not everything in the TheScent of Death is as it seems and St. James and its morbid occupants will become a nightmare for Dr. Hunter that he will not soon forget.
I would have to say that the TheScent of Death now tops my favorite for best in the series. The addition of more forensics than previous books in the series as well as the creepy hospital setting earns the TheScent of Death an A+ rating.
The TheScent of Death could easily be read as a standalone novel but for fans of the series, Beckett revives an old nemesis from one of Hunter’s past cases. It will make you want to reread Written in Bone all over again.
To learn more about the series check outtheDavid Hunterserieshere.
Just to give you an update on the release dates for the newest additions to the series that I have reviewed. Soon to be Released Mary Lawrence – The Alchemist of Lost Souls Expected Release Date 4/30/19 A Bianca Goddard Novel A dangerous element discovered by Bianca Goddard’s father falls into the wrong hands ....
Just to give you an update on the release dates for the newest additions to the series that I have reviewed.
A dangerous element discovered by Bianca Goddard’s father falls into the wrong hands . . . leading to a chain of multiple murders.
Spring 1544: Now that she is with child, Bianca is more determined than ever to distance herself from her unstable father. Desperate to win back the favor of King Henry VIII, disgraced alchemist Albern Goddard plans to reveal a powerful new element he’s discovered – one with deadly potential. But when the substance is stolen, he is panicked and expects his daughter to help.
Soon after, a woman’s body is found behind the Dim Dragon Inn, an eerie green vapor rising from her breathless mouth. To her grave concern, Bianca has reason to suspect her own mother may be involved in the theft and the murder. As her husband John is conscripted into King Henry’s army to subdue Scottish resistance, Bianca must navigate a twisted and treacherous path among alchemists, apothecaries, chandlers, and scoundrels – to find out who among them is willing to kill to possess the element known as lapis mortem, the stone of death.
The United States has reached a level of darkness unmatched in years prior. When Bryan Powell issues a universal death penalty for all living Inexorables, costs mount to terrifying proportions for the cohort. War or surrender is inevitable. The only problem? The darkness is as much inside of A.K.’s own mind as it is in the outside world. Plagued by memories of the past and audible hallucinations, A.K. is as much a threat to the revolution as he is an ally. If the cohort wants any hope of survival, sacrifices must be made, lies must be told, and betrayals must be confronted head-on. Victors of Liberty is the final book in the Children of Wrath Trilogy.
A hacker is drawn out of hiding and into an epic geopolitical showdown in the frighteningly plausible conclusion to Eliot Peper’s critically acclaimed Analog Series.
When you’ve betrayed your revolutionary cadre, an off-grid fight club on a remote tropical island is a good place to hide—or die.
For notorious ex-hacker Emily Kim, the outcome of each fight makes little difference. Black-market blood sport is the perfect self-imposed penance. But when she stumbles on a plot to overthrow the corporate empire that provides the ubiquitous global feed, Emily discovers her old friends have been targeted. Warning them will force her out into the open, back on-grid, and directly into danger. Emily can’t escape the past. But can she seize the future?
Emily’s quest for redemption spirals into an all-out shadow war. What constitutes justice in a world run by algorithms? The feed—and Emily—must be reinvented. Or destroyed.
San Francisco medical examiner Annabelle Schwartzman has spent eight years looking over her shoulder. Stalked by her vengeful ex-husband, Spencer, she’s always known they’d meet again. Has her nightmare come true? Abducted, blindfolded, yoked, and tethered, she’s being held prisoner in an isolated cabin in Idaho. But it’s the unknown that terrifies Annabelle now. Because the man’s voice in the dark, though eerily familiar, is not Spencer’s.
Annabelle’s partner and lover, Inspector Hal Harris, knows in his gut that Annabelle’s disappearance is tied to the past. Except Spencer is fifteen hundred miles away. To save Annabelle, Hal is tracking every move Spencer makes. But is it drawing him closer to finding Annabelle? Or is it luring him farther from her desperate cries for help?
As a cruel game of retribution begins, Annabelle must rely on her wits, her will to survive, and a plan of escape. But time is running out. And her captor’s three chilling words make her fear that the worst is yet to come: sweet dreams, Bella.
Forensic sculptor Eve Duncan journeys to Africa to help families torn apart by a violent attack deep in the jungle–but she may be putting herself in more danger than she knows.
A journalist shows up on Eve Duncan’s doorstep with a plea for help. Jill Cassidy has just come from a small African village with a heart wrenching story: half the villagers–many of them children–have been killed in a horrific attack by guerilla soldiers, the bodies burned beyond recognition. Now, the families desperately need Eve’s help to get closure and begin to heal.
But when Eve arrives in the remote jungle, she begins to suspect that Jill’s plea may have been a cover story for a deeper, more sinister plot. Isolated and unsure who she can trust, Eve finds herself stranded in an unstable country where violence threatens to break out again at any moment and with only her own instincts to rely on if she hopes to get home to her family alive . . .
War has come to the darkest depths of the deepest oceans.
Mayor Truman McClusky of Trieste City is at war with the world’s superpowers. Laying claim to the resources of the ocean and its floor is the only way to survive in a world where Global Warming and rising sea levels ravage the surface. But when a Trieste City spy ends up dead―his body beaten beyond recognition―Mac realizes that his city is in mortal danger. The occupying force in Trieste knows more about his plans for independence than he thought, and they will stop at nothing to control Trieste and her people.
Mac flees with a small team that includes scientist and newcomer to the underwater city, Dr. Manesh Lazlow. Together they head for a secret base in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge where they plan to create new technologies to fight the superpowers for dominance over the oceans. But the French have picked up Mac’s scent and will stop at nothing to kill him. Mac must elude the French, protect his citizens against sabotage and spycraft, and discover the identity of a spy in his midst if he is going to save his city and compete with the superpowers. But he’s just a tiny player in the grand scheme of ocean politics. . . .
. . . unless he can get his new deep-sea engine working. With it he’ll be able to forge deeper than any other sub in the oceans. And if that happens, then all hell is about to break loose.
Despite her tragic childhood, violin prodigy Cara Delaney has finally found peace in her career as a professional musician and stability in her relationship with her guardians, forensic sculptor Eve Duncan and ex-Navy SEAL Joe Quinn. If only Jock Gavin, Cara’s lifelong friend and a man with his own twisted history, would even talk to her, everything would be perfect.
But the carefully constructed life Cara has built for herself is suddenly threatened when she is kidnapped by a mysterious man from her grandfather’s past, setting off a violent chain of events that puts everyone Cara loves in danger. Will Cara become a tribute to her family’s dark past, or will she be able to keep herself and her loved ones alive?
It has been a good summer for forensics expert Dr David Hunter. His relationship is going well and he’s in demand again as a police consultant. His life seems to be on an even keel.
But not for long. The call comes from an old associate: a body has been found, and she’d like Hunter to take a look . . .
St Jude’s Hospital now stands empty. Slowly rotting and silently awaiting demolition, the vast, oppressive building’s only visitors have been society’s outcasts, addicts and dealers. And it’s here that the partially mummified corpse has been discovered. Hunter is not sure how long the body has been hidden in the hospital’s cavernous loft, but he’s seen enough to know it’s a young woman. And that she was pregnant.
As the remains are removed for closer examination, a floor collapses revealing a previously sealed off part of a ward. Bricked up inside this hidden chamber are three beds. Two of them are occupied . . .
What other grisly secrets will St Jude’s reveal? The local community is alarmed and the police need answers. For David Hunter, what began as a challenging if straightforward case is about to become a twisted nightmare threatening him and those around him.
Political and social infighting threaten to destroy the world. Rancor and hatred only grow stronger, engulfing nations around the globe. And each day moral and economic strife brings embroiled countries ever closer to war.
But hope is not dead. Everywhere, pockets of human kindness and compassion continue to persevere. Where lives are cherished and virtue endures. And one small, extraordinary group fights to save us all.
A team in possession of the mother of all secrets. The one secret – the one discovery – that could bring the world back from the brink.
Arriving home on Christmas Eve, Commander Gray Pierce discovers his house ransacked, his pregnant lover missing, and his best friend’s wife, Kat, unconscious on the kitchen floor. With no shred of evidence to follow, his one hope to find the woman he loves and his unborn child is Kat, the only witness to what happened. But the injured woman is in a semi-comatose state and cannot speak—until a brilliant neurologist offers a radical approach to “unlock” her mind long enough to ask a few questions.
What Pierce learns from Kat sets Sigma Force on a frantic quest for answers that are connected to mysteries reaching back to the Spanish Inquisition and to one of the most reviled and blood-soaked books in human history—a Medieval text known as the Malleus Maleficarum, the Hammer of Witches. What they uncover hidden deep in the past will reveal a frightening truth in the present and a future on the brink of annihilation, and force them to confront the ultimate question: What does it mean to have a soul?
The grisly death of a young girl resurfaces after twenty-two years. The coroner’s open verdict comes under scrutiny…
Sasha Grove-Williams hated her wealthy father’s dubious business affairs – and ended up dead on a railway track. But did she jump or was she pushed? That’s the burning question for Chief Inspector Beverley Wharton when a raving answerphone message from the now dementia-suffering coroner of the day falls into her hands.
She and her pathologist lover Dr John Eisenmenger – an expert in forensics – are immediately plunged into a messy world of corruption and violence that seems to envelop everyone.
Who is the father of the Sasha’s foetus that unexpectedly comes to light? How can Beverley be mired in the charge of collusion? What evil will Stephen Grove-Williams not stoop to in order to end the snooping? What will John make of Beverley’s bid to blackmail a villain to feather her own nest? Can science triumph over treachery?
For Ella Patel, sharing her mind with the alien, Io, has been tough, but they’re beginning to trust each other. Of course, it’s not just Io she’s dealing with, but the whole of the alien Prophus high command, and the rest of her new team. Given time, some of them might even be friends… But their enemies, the Genjix, are a constant threat, and it looks like the Prophus may have seriously underestimated them. Someone should really do something about that – but are Ella and Io the right agents for the job?
Living and working underwater can be a dangerous thing. First the bulkheads sweat, then there’s a trickle of water . . .
. . . and then in an instant you’re gone. The only thing left is a bloody pulp in the dark water and crushed bone fragments on the seafloor.
And you can’t bolt to the surface in an emergency. . . . The bends will get you.
But that’s not the worst. When you’re living underwater and also working as a spy for your city, that’s when things get really dangerous.
Truman McClusky has been out of the intelligence business for years, working the kelp farms and helping his city Trieste flourish on the shallow continental shelf just off the coast of Florida. Until his former partner shows up, that is, steals a piece of valuable new technology and makes a mad dash into the Atlantic. Before he knows it, Mac ends up back in the game, chasing the spy to not only recapture the tech, but to kill his former friend.
But when he learns the grim truth behind the theft, it sends his stable life into turmoil and plunges him into an even deadlier mission: evade the submarines of hostile foreign powers, escape assassins, and forge through the world’s oceans at breakneck pace on a daring quest to survive, with more lethal secrets than he thought possible in his pocket.
The future of the city depends on McClusky . . . if he can make it back home
Iris Johansen has just recently released her 24th addition to the Eve Duncan series, Dark Tribute. Eve Duncan is forensic sculptor extraordinaire and alongside with her cop/ex-navy seal husband, Joe Quinn, they seem to find themselves in situations that they are either saving someone or saving themselves from some evil entity and I am sure Dark...
Iris Johansen has just recently released her 24th addition to the Eve Duncan series, Dark Tribute. Eve Duncan is forensic sculptor extraordinaire and alongside with her cop/ex-navy seal husband, Joe Quinn, they seem to find themselves in situations that they are either saving someone or saving themselves from some evil entity and I am sure Dark Tribute is no exception. In Dark Tribute they are joined up with the newest character to the series, Cara Delaney.
Iris Johansen
Despite her tragic childhood, violin prodigy Cara Delaney has finally found peace in her career as a professional musician and stability in her relationship with her guardians, forensic sculptor Eve Duncan and ex-Navy SEAL Joe Quinn. If only Jock Gavin, Cara’s lifelong friend and a man with his own twisted history, would even talk to her, everything would be perfect.
But the carefully constructed life Cara has built for herself is suddenly threatened when she is kidnapped by a mysterious man from her grandfather’s past, setting off a violent chain of events that puts everyone Cara loves in danger. Will Cara become a tribute to her family’s dark past, or will she be able to keep herself and her loved ones alive?
Available in hardbound, paperback, audio, and e-book.
The focus of my blog is to review book series and not individual novels. But writers are going to continue writing novels within a series even after I have done my review, so I plan on reviewing the individual novels as they come into circulation. Michael C. Grumley has recently added book #5, Mosaic, to the...
The focus of my blog is to review book series and not individual novels. But writers are going to continue writing novels within a series even after I have done my review, so I plan on reviewing the individual novels as they come into circulation. Michael C. Grumley has recently added book #5, Mosaic, to the Breakthrough series.
Michael C. Grumley’s Breakthrough series is a unique scifi/technothriller series that focuses on technology that acts as a translator between dolphins and gorillas. The translator is a sophisticated computer system known as the Inter-Mammal Interpretive System or IMIS. The series also deals with aliens and, in fact, not one alien species but two. The first alien species was introduced in the first book, Breakthrough, and they came to planet Earth to steal some of our water as their home planet had become a barren wasteland. They didn’t mean to take much and thought they would get by without being noticed, but alas, when you fool around with Mother Nature things will go amiss, and they did. Luckily for us humans, a catastrophic event that was to take place as a result of pilfering water from the ocean was circumvented and as a result of this we got to make some alien friends. The second alien species actually visited plant Earth far in the past and left a little gift in the form of embryos of their species being held in some form of stasis. The novels Leap, Catalyst, Ripple and now Mosaic focus on this revolutionary find and what this might mean for us humans.
There are a couple of plots going on at the same time in Mosaic. Li Na Wei, the only human that has been exposed to a ‘specialized’ bacteria that has ties to the alien embryos, is trying to deal with the results of her exposure to the bacteria when she is kidnapped by the CIA. Yes, that is right, the CIA. You would think that the CIA and the US military would be on the same team but in Mosaic that doesn’t seem to be true. Additionally, the team that was investigating the alien ship at the bottom of the ocean near Trinidad in Ripple, was attacked. One of the members of the team working on getting into the alien vessel became trapped inside and it is up to Alison Shaw and the dolphins to get him out. Mosaic ends with an interesting cliff hanger so it looks like we get to look forward to more of our dolphin friends, Dirk and Sally. Lots of action with good guys, bad guys, and interesting technology, Mosaic is a fun read. If you like animals, aliens, and fascinating technology then I think that Mosaic and the Breakthrough series will be for you. Though it is not necessary to read the whole series first, it would be helpful to read Catalyst and Ripple beforehand.
To learn more about the series check outtheBreakthroughseries here.
Just to give you an update on the release dates for the newest additions to the series that I have reviewed. Soon to be Released Kevin Tinto – Ice Revelation Expected Release Date 3/15/19 A Leah Andrews & Jack Hobson Novel Iris Johansen – Dark Tribute Expected Release Date 3/26/19 An Eve Duncan Novel Despite...
Just to give you an update on the release dates for the newest additions to the series that I have reviewed.
Despite her tragic childhood, violin prodigy Cara Delaney has finally found peace in her career as a professional musician and stability in her relationship with her guardians, forensic sculptor Eve Duncan and ex-Navy SEAL Joe Quinn. If only Jock Gavin, Cara’s lifelong friend and a man with his own twisted history, would even talk to her, everything would be perfect.
But the carefully constructed life Cara has built for herself is suddenly threatened when she is kidnapped by a mysterious man from her grandfather’s past, setting off a violent chain of events that puts everyone Cara loves in danger. Will Cara become a tribute to her family’s dark past, or will she be able to keep herself and her loved ones alive?
A dangerous element discovered by Bianca Goddard’s father falls into the wrong hands . . . leading to a chain of multiple murders.
Spring 1544: Now that she is with child, Bianca is more determined than ever to distance herself from her unstable father. Desperate to win back the favor of King Henry VIII, disgraced alchemist Albern Goddard plans to reveal a powerful new element he’s discovered – one with deadly potential. But when the substance is stolen, he is panicked and expects his daughter to help.
Soon after, a woman’s body is found behind the Dim Dragon Inn, an eerie green vapor rising from her breathless mouth. To her grave concern, Bianca has reason to suspect her own mother may be involved in the theft and the murder. As her husband John is conscripted into King Henry’s army to subdue Scottish resistance, Bianca must navigate a twisted and treacherous path among alchemists, apothecaries, chandlers, and scoundrels – to find out who among them is willing to kill to possess the element known as lapis mortem, the stone of death.
A hacker is drawn out of hiding and into an epic geopolitical showdown in the frighteningly plausible conclusion to Eliot Peper’s critically acclaimed Analog Series.
When you’ve betrayed your revolutionary cadre, an off-grid fight club on a remote tropical island is a good place to hide—or die.
For notorious ex-hacker Emily Kim, the outcome of each fight makes little difference. Black-market blood sport is the perfect self-imposed penance. But when she stumbles on a plot to overthrow the corporate empire that provides the ubiquitous global feed, Emily discovers her old friends have been targeted. Warning them will force her out into the open, back on-grid, and directly into danger. Emily can’t escape the past. But can she seize the future?
Emily’s quest for redemption spirals into an all-out shadow war. What constitutes justice in a world run by algorithms? The feed—and Emily—must be reinvented. Or destroyed.
San Francisco medical examiner Annabelle Schwartzman has spent eight years looking over her shoulder. Stalked by her vengeful ex-husband, Spencer, she’s always known they’d meet again. Has her nightmare come true? Abducted, blindfolded, yoked, and tethered, she’s being held prisoner in an isolated cabin in Idaho. But it’s the unknown that terrifies Annabelle now. Because the man’s voice in the dark, though eerily familiar, is not Spencer’s.
Annabelle’s partner and lover, Inspector Hal Harris, knows in his gut that Annabelle’s disappearance is tied to the past. Except Spencer is fifteen hundred miles away. To save Annabelle, Hal is tracking every move Spencer makes. But is it drawing him closer to finding Annabelle? Or is it luring him farther from her desperate cries for help?
As a cruel game of retribution begins, Annabelle must rely on her wits, her will to survive, and a plan of escape. But time is running out. And her captor’s three chilling words make her fear that the worst is yet to come: sweet dreams, Bella.
Forensic sculptor Eve Duncan journeys to Africa to help families torn apart by a violent attack deep in the jungle–but she may be putting herself in more danger than she knows.
A journalist shows up on Eve Duncan’s doorstep with a plea for help. Jill Cassidy has just come from a small African village with a heart wrenching story: half the villagers–many of them children–have been killed in a horrific attack by guerilla soldiers, the bodies burned beyond recognition. Now, the families desperately need Eve’s help to get closure and begin to heal.
But when Eve arrives in the remote jungle, she begins to suspect that Jill’s plea may have been a cover story for a deeper, more sinister plot. Isolated and unsure who she can trust, Eve finds herself stranded in an unstable country where violence threatens to break out again at any moment and with only her own instincts to rely on if she hopes to get home to her family alive . . .
It has been a good summer for forensics expert Dr David Hunter. His relationship is going well and he’s in demand again as a police consultant. His life seems to be on an even keel.
But not for long. The call comes from an old associate: a body has been found, and she’d like Hunter to take a look . . .
St Jude’s Hospital now stands empty. Slowly rotting and silently awaiting demolition, the vast, oppressive building’s only visitors have been society’s outcasts, addicts and dealers. And it’s here that the partially mummified corpse has been discovered. Hunter is not sure how long the body has been hidden in the hospital’s cavernous loft, but he’s seen enough to know it’s a young woman. And that she was pregnant.
As the remains are removed for closer examination, a floor collapses revealing a previously sealed off part of a ward. Bricked up inside this hidden chamber are three beds. Two of them are occupied . . .
What other grisly secrets will St Jude’s reveal? The local community is alarmed and the police need answers. For David Hunter, what began as a challenging if straightforward case is about to become a twisted nightmare threatening him and those around him.
Political and social infighting threaten to destroy the world. Rancor and hatred only grow stronger, engulfing nations around the globe. And each day moral and economic strife brings embroiled countries ever closer to war.
But hope is not dead. Everywhere, pockets of human kindness and compassion continue to persevere. Where lives are cherished and virtue endures. And one small, extraordinary group fights to save us all.
A team in possession of the mother of all secrets. The one secret – the one discovery – that could bring the world back from the brink.
Arriving home on Christmas Eve, Commander Gray Pierce discovers his house ransacked, his pregnant lover missing, and his best friend’s wife, Kat, unconscious on the kitchen floor. With no shred of evidence to follow, his one hope to find the woman he loves and his unborn child is Kat, the only witness to what happened. But the injured woman is in a semi-comatose state and cannot speak—until a brilliant neurologist offers a radical approach to “unlock” her mind long enough to ask a few questions.
What Pierce learns from Kat sets Sigma Force on a frantic quest for answers that are connected to mysteries reaching back to the Spanish Inquisition and to one of the most reviled and blood-soaked books in human history—a Medieval text known as the Malleus Maleficarum, the Hammer of Witches. What they uncover hidden deep in the past will reveal a frightening truth in the present and a future on the brink of annihilation, and force them to confront the ultimate question: What does it mean to have a soul?
The grisly death of a young girl resurfaces after twenty-two years. The coroner’s open verdict comes under scrutiny…
Sasha Grove-Williams hated her wealthy father’s dubious business affairs – and ended up dead on a railway track. But did she jump or was she pushed? That’s the burning question for Chief Inspector Beverley Wharton when a raving answerphone message from the now dementia-suffering coroner of the day falls into her hands.
She and her pathologist lover Dr John Eisenmenger – an expert in forensics – are immediately plunged into a messy world of corruption and violence that seems to envelop everyone.
Who is the father of the Sasha’s foetus that unexpectedly comes to light? How can Beverley be mired in the charge of collusion? What evil will Stephen Grove-Williams not stoop to in order to end the snooping? What will John make of Beverley’s bid to blackmail a villain to feather her own nest? Can science triumph over treachery?
For Ella Patel, sharing her mind with the alien, Io, has been tough, but they’re beginning to trust each other. Of course, it’s not just Io she’s dealing with, but the whole of the alien Prophus high command, and the rest of her new team. Given time, some of them might even be friends… But their enemies, the Genjix, are a constant threat, and it looks like the Prophus may have seriously underestimated them. Someone should really do something about that – but are Ella and Io the right agents for the job?
Living and working underwater can be a dangerous thing. First the bulkheads sweat, then there’s a trickle of water . . .
. . . and then in an instant you’re gone. The only thing left is a bloody pulp in the dark water and crushed bone fragments on the seafloor.
And you can’t bolt to the surface in an emergency. . . . The bends will get you.
But that’s not the worst. When you’re living underwater and also working as a spy for your city, that’s when things get really dangerous.
Truman McClusky has been out of the intelligence business for years, working the kelp farms and helping his city Trieste flourish on the shallow continental shelf just off the coast of Florida. Until his former partner shows up, that is, steals a piece of valuable new technology and makes a mad dash into the Atlantic. Before he knows it, Mac ends up back in the game, chasing the spy to not only recapture the tech, but to kill his former friend.
But when he learns the grim truth behind the theft, it sends his stable life into turmoil and plunges him into an even deadlier mission: evade the submarines of hostile foreign powers, escape assassins, and forge through the world’s oceans at breakneck pace on a daring quest to survive, with more lethal secrets than he thought possible in his pocket.
The future of the city depends on McClusky . . . if he can make it back home
Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child – Verses for the Dead
After an overhaul of leadership at the FBI’s New York field office, A. X. L. Pendergast is abruptly forced to accept an unthinkable condition of continued employment: the famously rogue agent must now work with a partner.
Pendergast and his new teammate, junior agent Coldmoon, are assigned to Miami Beach, where a rash of killings by a bloodthirsty psychopath are distinguished by a confounding M.O.: cutting out the hearts of his victims and leaving them-along with cryptic handwritten letters-at local gravestones, unconnected save in one bizarre way: all belonged to women who committed suicide.
But the seeming lack of connection between the old suicides and the new murders is soon the least of Pendergast’s worries. Because as he digs deeper, he realizes the brutal new crimes may be just the tip of the iceberg: a conspiracy of death that reaches back decades.
Harvey “Ben” Bennett is a park ranger volunteer who stumbles across a crime scene. He’s immediately thrust into a deadly game of cat-and-mouse, and he must figure out who’s behind it all.
With the doomsday ship only days away from impacting the Earth, humanity’s demise seems all but assured. In every corner of the world, news of the impending destruction has led to chaos, looting and the collapse of the rule of law.
As the foundations of civilization crumble around them, Jack and Mia must race to find answers to perhaps the most important questions of all time. Why have the Ateans repeatedly eradicated life on our planet? And could the key to ending the cycle of extinctions be locked somewhere within the Salzburg Chromosome?
Unraveling the mystery will mean journeying deep into the heart of a perilous alien world and facing off against the very beings who created us.
