An arresting conclusion to the Eve Duncan trilogy.
After an explosive showdown in Colorado among the CIA, Eve Duncan's loved ones and a furious Jim Doane, Eve is Doane’s captive again, but the stakes are higher than anyone imagined, and getting Eve to safety is shadowed by an even deadlier threat.
Renowned forensic sculptor Eve is captive again to evil Jim Doane. Doane set up an intricate escape amid a fiery explosion in a Colorado ghost town and is convinced he’s fooled everyone into thinking he and Eve are both dead. However, Eve’s loved ones—her lover, Joe Quinn, her adopted daughter, Jane, and an assorted group of smart, well-connected allies—have figured out they are alive. They are also suspicious of the CIA, whom Eve works for and yet who seem more concerned with taking Doane out than in rescuing Eve. Gathering clues while keeping under Doane’s radar screen, they are confronted with the horrifying reason the CIA—and their contact, Agent Venable—is less concerned with Eve’s welfare than they are: Doane’s deceased son, Kevin, left two armed nuclear weapons somewhere in the U.S., and the CIA believes Doane will set them off. Doane is out for revenge and has abducted Eve to recreate his son’s skull, believing that making that happen will bring Kevin back to life somehow. However, Eve also has a surprising connection to Zander, the man responsible for Kevin’s death, and Doane is using her as bait to draw the enigmatic assassin to her rescue. Meanwhile, Jane and her friends realize that Doane isn’t actually the person behind the destructive Grand Plan. They must race a ticking time bomb to discover the whereabouts of the detonator and the weapons and keep Eve and two major metropolitan areas safe. The novel offers a multilayered plot with a long cast of characters Johansen fans will recognize from the first two books in the trilogy as well as other series. The continued sexual tension between Jane and her two would-be lovers ratchets up to a surprising conclusion, and the intriguing hints at ghostly help and psychic talent to solve the many mysteries add texture, romance and enigma to a taut, compelling storyline.
An arresting conclusion to the Eve Duncan trilogy.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-250-02002-4
Page Count: 416
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Sept. 17, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2013
Lamer than usual. Has the formula at last run thin enough to keep Baldacci off the bestseller list?
Murders, kidnappings, international conspiracies, internecine warfare between alphabet agencies, mad scientists and, oh yes, buried treasure, as Baldacci pours it on.
Michelle Maxwell and Sean King, once of the Secret Service, but now, reductively, P.I.s chasing the industrial security buck, return in Baldacci’s 13th (The Collectors, 2006, etc.) to face a sea of troubles. For one thing, Michelle may be cracking up. We know this because in the opening scene she ventures into exactly the wrong Washington D.C. bar and picks a fight with exactly the wrong Neanderthal. She’s almost killed, which, it turns out, might well have been the aim of the game. Instantly, Sean nudges her into a “facility” where she can be restored to mental health by world-class though unconventional psychologist Horatio Barnes, Sean’s old friend. (We know how far from hidebound he is because he wears jeans and black t-shirts and drives a Harley.) Restoring Michelle to mental health does not come cheap, so Sean takes on a gig that connects him to a certain high-powered and mysterious enclave in Virginia called Babbage Town. Baggage Town is high-powered because the scientists who work on its behalf are super bright, and it’s mysterious because no one really knows what they’re working on—except that a breakthrough could bring “the world as we know it to a screeching halt.” There, Sean finds the adorable Viggie, an 11-year-old girl genius (mathematics) who is targeted by various nasty types attempting to exploit her. Soon the customary battle ensues. Fortunately, Michelle recovers sufficient mental health to blow the facility and resume the partnership, arriving in time to earn again the thanks of a grateful…make that world.
Lamer than usual. Has the formula at last run thin enough to keep Baldacci off the bestseller list?Pub Date: April 24, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-446-58034-2
Page Count: 421
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2007
A thrilling and satisfying sequel to the 1969 classic.
Over 50 years after an extraterrestrial microbe wiped out a small Arizona town, something very strange has appeared in the Amazon jungle in Wilson’s follow-up to Crichton’s The Andromeda Strain.
The microparticle's introduction to Earth in 1967 was the disastrous result of an American weapons research program. Before it could be contained, Andromeda killed all but two people in tiny Piedmont, Arizona; during testing after the disaster, AS-1 evolved and escaped into the atmosphere. Project Eternal Vigilance was quickly set up to scan for any possible new outbreaks of Andromeda. Now, an anomaly with “signature peaks” closely resembling the original Andromeda Strain has been spotted in the heart of the Amazon, and a Wildfire Alert is issued. A diverse team is assembled: Nidhi Vedala, an MIT nanotechnology expert born in a Mumbai slum; Harold Odhiambo, a Kenyan xenogeologist; Peng Wu, a Chinese doctor and taikonaut; Sophie Kline, a paraplegic astronaut and nanorobotics expert based on the International Space Station; and, a last-minute addition, roboticist James Stone, son of Dr. Jeremy Stone from The Andromeda Strain. They must journey into the deepest part of the jungle to study and hopefully contain the dire threat that the anomaly seemingly poses to humanity. But the jungle has its own dangers, and it’s not long before distrust and suspicion grip the team. They’ll need to come together to take on what waits for them inside a mysterious structure that may not be of this world. Setting the story over the course of five days, Wilson (Robopocalypse, 2011, etc.) combines the best elements of hard SF novels and techno-thrillers, using recovered video, audio, and interview transcripts to shape the narrative, with his own robotics expertise adding flavor and heft. Despite a bit of acronym overload, this is an atmospheric and often terrifying roller-coaster ride with (literally) sky-high stakes that pays plenty of homage to The Andromeda Strain while also echoing the spirit and mood of Crichton’s other works, such as Jurassic Park and Congo. Add more than a few twists and exciting set pieces (especially in the finale) to the mix, and you’ve got a winner.
A thrilling and satisfying sequel to the 1969 classic.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-247327-1
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
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