The murder of a dinosaur “treasure hunter” in New Mexico.
It’s a bit confusing with too many threads:
A moon rock missing for thirty years.
A scientist with ambition enough to kill.
A monk who will redeem the world.
A dark agency with a deadly mission.
The greatest scientific discovery of all time.
On the upside, Douglas Preston is an expert in palaeontology, working as a writer at the American Museum of Natural History for many years. A lot of his books are grounded in actual science.
Ruth has a new job, home, and partner, and she is no longer North Norfolk police’s resident forensic archaeologist.
That is, until convicted murderer Ivor March offers to make DCI Nelson a deal.
Nelson was always sure that March killed more women than he was charged with. Now March confirms this and offers to show Nelson where the other bodies are buried—but only if Ruth will do the digging.
Curious, but wary, Ruth agrees.
March tells Ruth that he killed four more women and that their bodies are buried near a village bordering the fens, said to be haunted by the Lantern Men, mysterious figures holding lights that lure travelers to their deaths.
Is Ivor March himself a lantern man, luring Ruth back to Norfolk?
What is his plan, and why is she so crucial to it?
This is the first for me — and probably the last. The story telling was TOO SLOW.
An un-Thriller.
Phantom Orbit is his 2024 book. And it is very much up-to-date in terms of technology. The detail, relevancy, and realism are impressive.
Threats to the American GPS system and satellites, especially from Russia and China, is the main thread.
It follows Ivan Volkov, a Russian student in Beijing …
The years pass, and they are not kind to Volkov.
After the loss of his son, a prosecutor who’d been too tough on corruption, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Volkov makes the fraught decision to contact the CIA.
He writes: Satellites are your enemies, especially your own…Hidden codes can make time stop and turn north into south…If you are smart, you will find me.
Any other writer would have broken it up into 3 books.
It’s LONG.
BEST consider it 3 books.
… an epic espionage thriller filled with wrath and retribution, faith and forgiveness, sacrifice, love and loss, all in the name of an almighty being.
It’s a mind-bending story of one man’s evolution from spy to savior when the world descends into “utter darkness.”
Hayes has constructed the plot as a quest narrative, taking Kane to the ends of the earth and back to save humanity from a person who has earned his place in the “pantheon of terrorism.” …
In the novel, Hayes takes us on a deep dive into the workings of the CIA and the National Security Agency when Kane prepares for each stage of his journey. The settings are immersive and the historical details remarkable.
From Afghanistan to Pakistan, from D.C. to Russia’s deep state and so many places in between, each landscape where Kane journeys is described in rich geographic detail with compelling backstories that contextualize each region’s cultures and values. …
At close to 800 pages, this is a really big book with really big themes and chapter after chapter of blockbuster action (and graphic violence), often ending in foreshadowing that cranks up the suspense.
The first three-fourths of “Year” definitely is the book many readers of Hayes’ first novel, “I Am Pilgrim” (another allusion to sacred texts), have waited 10 years to read. When the final part of the novel shifts into sci-fi territory, the sudden syncopation in the plot lines may throw some readers off. It’s bonkers and breathtaking.
Impenetrable. Well protected. Secure. Home to the most valuable jewels on earth. But once a year, the Metropolitan Police must execute the most secret operation in their armoury when they transport the Crown Jewels across London.
SCOTLAND YARD…
For four years, Chief Superindendent William Warwick – together with his second-in-command Inspector Ross Hogan – has been in charge of the operation. And for four years it’s run like clockwork.
THE HEIST…
But this year, everything is about to change. Because master criminal Miles Faulkner has set his heart on pulling off the most outrageous theft in history – and with a man on the inside, the odds are in his favour.
Gideon Crew—brilliant scientist, master thief, intrepid adventurer—is shocked when his former employer, Eli Glinn, vanishes without a trace, and Glinn’s high-tech lab Effective Engineering Solutions shuts down seemingly overnight.
Fresh off a diagnosis that gives him only months to live, Crew is contacted by one of his former coworkers at EES, Manuel Garza, who has a bead on one final treasure hinted at in EES’s final case, the long-awaited translation of a centuries-old stone tablet of a previously undiscovered civilization: The Phaistos Disc.
What lies at the end of the trail will either save Gideon’s life—or bring it to a sudden, shocking close.
Crew once again faces incredible odds—but as Gideon has proved again and again, there’s no such thing as too great a risk when you’re living on borrowed time.
Brunetti is assigned to investigate the murder of an undocumented Sri Lankan immigrant.
Because no official record of the man’s presence in Venice exists, Brunetti is forced to use the city’s far richer sources of information: gossip and the memories of people who knew the victim.
Curiously, he had been living in a small house on the grounds of a palazzo owned by a university professor, in which Brunetti discovers books revealing the victim’s interest in Buddhism, the revolutionary Tamil Tigers, and the last crop of Italian political terrorists, active in the 1980s.
Easy reading. A slow burn.
The personal life of Brunetti and his wife are equally as interesting as the murders.
Rick McCharles 