“The Blood Gospel: The Order of the Sanguines Series” by James Rollins and Rebecca Cantrell (William Morrow, 2013)

Many readers are familiar with James Rollins, known for his bestselling Sigma Force novels, as well as his standalone thrillers like Sandstorm and Amazonia.  Not as many people may know the author James Clemens, who is in fact a pseudonym for James Rollins.  Under this name, he has published seven fantasy novels.  The Blood Gospel, a new novel from Rollins collaborating with Rebecca Cantrell, author of thrillers like A Trace of Smoke and A City of Broken Glass, is the first in a new series known as The Order of the Sanguines, and marks Rollins’ return to the world of the supernatural and the fantastic.

In this gothic tale, a strange trio is on the hunt for a sacred text out of ancient history that must be recovered, known as the Blood Gospel.  The story begins with a devastating earthquake in Masada, Israel, killing many, but also revealing the hidden location of a sacred tomb.  The trio is assembled: Sergeant Jordan Stone, a forensic expert working for the military; Father Rhun Korza, a strange priest sent by the Vatican; and Dr. Erin Granger, a brilliant archaeologist who had been working nearby at the time.  Within the tomb they find the strange crucified body of a young, mummified girl.

Before they know it, the trio finds themselves under attack by some very strange characters, some of which don’t appear to be human, but they survive.  This begins the chase to track down the secret location of the Blood Gospel.  The enigmatic Father Korza reveals some important details about this sacred text and why it is important, and perhaps who some of these unusual characters they’ve been running into are.  As they follow clues, using their individual skills as well as plenty of intuition, the search leads them deep into the heart of Europe, within an ancient German castle.

As the story continues to open and reveal itself, like a beautiful, sacred tapestry, the authors do a great job of ratcheting up the suspense and action, making things tougher for their characters, as well as showing more of the back story, which has a history reaching back thousands of years.  Back to a time and origin of some strange beasts, which bear an uncanny resemblance to their current enemies.

The Blood Gospel is an impressive collaboration between Rollins and Cantrell, revealing a complex and fascinating tale, as well as an intriguing world that sucks the reader in from the start.  Each main character has his or her own point of view, adding a depth and intricacy to them that is not usually common in these types of thrillers.  Unique answers that fit the story are presented to questions like: Why are Catholic priests sworn to celibacy?  Why do they ware pectoral crosses?  Why is wine consecrated and transformed into Christ’s blood during Mass?  And what is the real story behind the raising of Lazarus?  Whether you’ve tried Rollins or Cantrell before, The Blood Gospel will be the ride of your life.

Originally written on February 6, 2013 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of Blood Gospel from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

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“Bloodline” by James Rollins (William Morrow, 2012)

In bestselling author James Rollins’ next riveting installment of his SIGMA Force series, there is a sort of cool down period compared to his previous Devil Colony and Doomsday Key, as there is less of the jumping from country to country around the world, with great earth-shattering ramifications, as the Bloodline story is a smaller more sinister one.  And yet, as it unfolds, the reader learns of a new way to be terrified, not for the fate of the world, but for the fate of their humanity on a genetic level.

The story opens with a short prologue of the Knights Templar in the eleventh century and a supposed hidden female Templar.  Jumping to the present day, the President’s daughter is kidnapped by Somali pirates and the SIGMA Force team is sent out to get her back alive.  But as the truth is slowly revealed, everyone soon realizes these pirates aren’t interested in a ransom, but in the special child she is carrying; also they’re not your average pirates, in fact they work for a group readers familiar with the series will know all too well.  So it’s up to Pierce and the team to get the President’s daughter back, but also to get her child back too, for it possesses a very special genetic code that others would gladly murder and massacre to get their hands on.

Rollins continues to do what he does best in Bloodline, weaving unusual storylines together with links the reader never saw coming.  A strong cast featuring some impressive female characters makes this a thrilling read; though it is contrasted with the shocking procedures some other female characters have to endure.  Bloodline is not for those with a weak stomach.  But for those wishing to get some answers about the clandestine group known as the Guild, this is the book for you.

Originally written on July 17, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of Bloodline from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

“Reamde” by Neal Stephenson (William Morrow, 2011)

This is book review number 600 for BookBanter!

Neal Stephenson returns with one doorstop of a tome weighing in at over a thousand pages, with Reamde, which some computer geeks may have guessed is in fact a misspelling of “readme.”  Stephenson takes a growing sub-genre that is right up his alley: that of the massive multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG).  Whether you’re a computer fan, a Stephenson fan, or a fan of edge-of-your-seat thrillers, you’ll find something to sink your teeth into and keep chewing on for some time in Reamde.

Richard Forthrast is our approaching-middle-age hero who is one of the big brains behind the multi-billion dollar MMO, T’Rain, which is known throughout the world, whether you’re a rich white kid who likes to pretend he’s an elf, or a gold farmer somewhere in Asia looking to make some good money.  T’Rain was in fact created with that in mind – Richard’s past is not a completely clean one by any means – to be open and available and possibly profitable to just about anyone on the planet with a good Internet connection.  And then a very specific virus attacks T’Rain, known as Reamde, which immediately begins making a lot of money for its creators and screwing over a lot of the regular players.  Richard and his team of brainiacs are now working round the clock trying to bring a stop to this.

Meanwhile, one of Richard’s family members – Zula – originally from East Africa and adopted into the family as a young girl, was hired by Richard to work for T’Rain, and becomes involved in a really big problem when her boyfriend Peter – who happens to be a renowned hacker – is looking to make good money selling credit card numbers to a shady, unknown character.  Things take a turn for the worse, when the Reamde virus hits and screws everything up for him.  Before they know it, the Russian mafia is breaking down their door, kidnapping them, and taking them to Asia by private jet to find the perpetrators of the Reamde virus and get their revenge.

Reamde begins like an expected Stephenson book with computers and an MMO, but then makes a change to a Tom Clancy-style thriller, as the characters travel around the world, getting involved in elaborate shootouts in distant countries.  Eventually Islamic terrorist even get involve, as well as a member of MI6 who seems to appear from nowhere and gets a twenty page introduction.  The crux of the book takes place towards the end of the first third of the book, in what Cory Doctorow calls “. . .an epic, 100+ page climactic mini-war.”  The ongoing saga eventually leads back to Seattle and the northwest, passing into Canada, where the novel began, pulling Richard Forthrast into the mix.

Reamde certainly has a captivating voice that Stephenson skillfully uses to hook people in, with a complex and interesting story, but then the action and thrill-ride goes on and on, pulling in more and more characters.  As can be said for almost any thousand-page novel – though I’m sure some Stephenson fans love that it’s this long – Reamde could afford to lose a couple hundred pages, perhaps be edited in half.  Towards the end of the novel, it feels like the initial drive may have become lost in the mess of people and bullets and traveling.  Readers will be left wondering why this massive cast is now chasing and following the ever-changing villains, in the hopes of getting to Zula – an originally interesting female character who eventually becomes “kidnapping baggage,” when even some of these characters looking to find her have never even met her.  Reamde could’ve used an editor performing some heavy page cutting and some necessary redirection to help Stephenson stay on the rails; the result is a sprawling epic that loses its way on a number of occasions.

Originally written on October 13, 2011 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of Reamde from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

“Half-Past Dawn” by Richard Doetsch (Atria Books, 2011)

Bestselling author Richard Doetsch last thrilled readers with Thieves of Darkness and the amazing 13^th Hour; in Half-Past Dawn he delivers a whole new meaning to the term “thriller,” providing shocking reveals and realizations at the end of almost every chapter.  Readers will be left wondering (and dreading) what will happen next, and be physically unable to stop reading.

Jack Keeler wakes up one morning to find that there are many things wrong with the world; things that were not this way the day before.  He has a strange wound over his right eye that has been hastily and badly stitched together, yet he has no memory of ever being injured.  There is also a strange and intricate tattoo design on his forearm – written in an unknown script – which he has no recollection getting.  He does not hear the sound of his beautiful wife, or his happy twin girls; his house is all too quiet.  And then he finds the newspaper with the headline NEW YORK CITY DISTRICT ATTORNEY JACK KEELER DEAD.  It is then that Keeler knows there is something very wrong with the world.

Now it’s up to Jack to find out what happened to the love of his life; his children who he can’t live without; and why the world thinks he’s dead.  It seems like one of those good mysteries that delivers answers as the story goes along, except Doetsch is looking to change this expected dynamic in Half-Past Dawn, providing unpredictable plot twists and startling discoveries.  In The 13^th Hour, Doetsch used a device that seemed fantastic in nature; in this novel he takes on the human mind and memory – our most important asset – and yet when we start to doubt it, reality begins to be questioned.

Stories this elaborately conceived usually have a weak ending, or cop out in some way; not so with Half-Past Dawn.  Doetsch has done his homework and research, linking with an Asian people out of legend, to present an incredible story that will leave one wondering until the very end.

Originally written on October 13, 2011 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of Half-Past Dawn from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

“Inmate 1577” by Alan Jacobson (Norwood Press, 2011)

When it seemed like the great thrillers involving the ace FBI Profiler, Karen Vail, couldn’t get any better after the bestselling Crush, Alan Jacobson brings Vail back to Northern California, this time in sunny and chilly and foggy San Francisco, with a new serial killer on the loose, and the growing and undeniable ties to one prison located on a certain island out in the bay.

Jacobson tells two stories here, jumping back and forth in time and from place to place.  First there is the story of Karen Vail, the FBI’s best profiler, who has been called back to California, to San Francisco to investigate a growing series of horrible killings, specifically elderly women who have been raped and brutally murdered, and their husbands, killed and left dangling and hanging from San Francisco landmarks.  SFPD Inspector Lance Burden is working with Vail, along with former colleague, Detective Roxxann Dixon; and with a crack team, the clues lead them throughout the beautiful city, as they investigate the bodies and put the pieces together.

Then there is the story of Walton MacNally, back in 1955, who has a series of really unfortunate events that lead him to start stealing and breaking the law, all to help and support his son.  But then he gets caught and spends his time in Leavenworth Penitentiary, and after a failed jailbreak, ends up on the rock of Alcatraz, where his life continues as a prisoner of one of the most infamous prisons in history.

The reader knows these stories are somehow linked, but Jacobson does a fantastic job of maintaining the suspense for literally hundreds of pages, and Inmate 1577 is a great 500-pager.  The author makes working a serial killer case more real than ever, as the agents involved continue to be stumped at finding the killer, and feeling simply lost, until they get another clue they must chase down.  While Jacobson does take a little while to actually get to Alcatraz in the book, as well as being a little too liberal with the acronyms, these are but minor distractions in this great example of the page-turning thriller.  Jacobson even spent some time on Alcatraz writing the book, as well as many days and interviews researching the book.

Inmate 1577 is simply a great book that any mystery fan will gobble up like their favorite dish.  Whether this is your first Karen Vail novel or you’ve been working your way through them; you will not be disappointed with this lengthy book that will keep you reading and both wanting to reach the end and at the same time not be done with the book.

To purchase a copy of Inmate 1577, go to the Norwood Press site.

Originally written on August 31, 2011 ©Alex C. Telander.

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“The Devil Colony” by James Rollins (William Morrow, 2011)

James Rollins’ latest book, The Devil Colony, does everything a thriller should with a compelling storyline, travel to exotic and unusual places, elements of the fantastic, and lots and lots of action.  Rollins describes his novels as rollercoaster rides, which The Devil Colony may well be, and reveals this author’s storytelling and writing abilities at their very best.

In this new SIGMA Force novel, Rollins blends some shocking and relatively unknown American history with cutting edge science that defies the mind.  Deep within the Rocky Mountains of Utah an incredible discovery is made of Native American mummies buried in a cave beneath the ground, as well as a number of priceless gold artifacts with some very strange ancient writing on them that doesn’t seem to be Native American.  As the artifacts are brought to the surface, a terrible explosion rips through the air, causing a number of deaths.  Thought to be an act by a radical Native American group, the truth is revealed to be far more dooming as some unusual activated element has been brought to the surface and seems to be eating through matter of any kind with no end in sight.

The SIGMA Force are called in to investigate, with Painter Crowe who is looking to help his niece – who has become tied up in the whole catastrophe – however he can, while Commander Grayson Pierce does his own research with some help from the beautiful and enigmatic Seichan.  This mystery will take them from the mountains of Utah to the volcanoes of Iceland to the impenetrable vaults of Fort Knox to the renowned geysers of Yellowstone.  It will also take them one important step closer to the ancient and secretive order known as the Guild, until it is realized that far more is at risk when a geological chain reaction is set in motion that could have devastating effects for the entire planet.

While The Devil Colony certainly seems to push the boundaries of the conventional thriller, Rollins is careful to back up his incredible storylines with meticulous historical and scientific research, which he goes into detail with in his foreword and afterword, as he does his best to explain to readers the story behind the ultimate question of this book: Was America founded on a lie?  Read the book to find out the story behind this and the supposed twelfth colony, known as the Devil Colony.

CLICK HERE to purchase your copy from Bookshop Santa Cruz and help support BookBanter.

Originally written on June 20, 2011 ©Alex C. Telander.

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“The Skeleton Key: A Short Story Exclusive” by James Rollins (Kindle, 2011)

Bestselling author James Rollins’ SIGMA series features a number of popular and powerful characters that readers have become quite attached to, and none is more interesting than the beautiful and mysterious Seichan.  In this short story exclusive, “The Skeleton Key,” readers get to see Seichan working on a solo mission that she never intended to get involved in.

Seichan wakes up to find herself in hotel room in Paris; she’s been knocked out with something unknown and has no memory of how she got here.  Then there’s the strange electronic collar around her neck that can’t been detached and seems like it may contain an explosive device.  In the room is also a stranger, a Scottish boy also wearing a collar who doesn’t know how he got there either.  Then she gets the call from an old enemy, one who is involved with the clandestine Guild which Seichan used to work for and is now trying hard to bring down and stop.  In return for her freedom and an important document, she must find this man’s son, alive.

Her journey will take her deep into the catacombs of Paris, filled with history and stories of death, secrecy, and in this case an apocalyptic cult.  Using her new friend’s knowledge of this cult which his girlfriend is involved with, and the map tattooed on his back, she hopes to find this cult and put a stop to whatever they’re doing, before someone decides to trigger the bomb attached to her throat.

Rollins delivers classic action, thrill and intrigue, along with a fascinating history lesson into the dark necropolis beneath beautiful Paris, which will keep readers hooked to the very end.  Plus there’s some important story hear, as Seichan is provided with an important clue, leading up to Rollins’ next SIGMA book, Devil Colony, due out June 21^st.

Originally written on May 30, 2011 ©Alex C. Telander.

“The Confession” by John Grisham (Doubleday, 2010)

In John Grisham’s latest legal thriller, The Confession, he takes on the tough subject of the death penalty.  While it soon becomes clear, as one gets into the book, where Grisham stands on this touchy subject, The Confession is an interesting and entertaining exploration of Texas and death row and what happens when the wrong person is headed for lethal injection; at times the reader is left reminding themselves that this is a work of fiction.

Donté Drumm is an African-American high school football star who in 1998 was accused then arrested for the murder of Nicole Yarber, a white cheerleader whose body was never found, in Sloane, Texas.  It’s almost eight years later and he’s been on death row even since, and now stands but a few days away from receiving the lethal injection.   Enter Travis Boyette, a creepy old guy with a rap sheep of multiple sex offender convictions who has a massive brain tumor and knows he’s not long for this world.  He reveals himself to a Kansas minister, Keith Schroeder, confessing that he killed the girl.  Boyette goes into detail about how he killed her and where he buried the body.  And the race is on to get Boyette to Texas, to get all the lawyers involved and see if they can stop the execution of an innocent man in time.

Grisham does little to defend the death penalty in The Confession, making the book more of a political statement than an entertaining thriller, and yet for readers who wonder what might happen in a situation where the person on death row is clearly innocent, this book will provide a lot of the answers.

CLICK HERE to purchase your copy from Bookshop Santa Cruz and help support BookBanter.

Originally written on February 3, 2011 ©Alex C. Telander.

“Velocity” by Alan Jacobson (Vanguard Press, 2010)

After the cliffhanger of Crush, Karen Vail is right back in the thick of it.  The key to these books is the realism Alan Jacobson puts into his characters and his story, keeping the reader hooked until the end, as they simply have no idea what is going to happen next and who will survive.

We last left FBI profiler Karen Vail with the Crush killer caught, and the serial killings in the beautiful wine county of Napa Valley finally at an end; but the nightmare is still continuing for Vail, as her boyfriend and love of her life, Detective Robby Hernandez, is missing, and she doesn’t have a clue where he could be.  Vail doesn’t take a break, keeping the team together to track down and find Hernandez.  Then she gets the call she doesn’t want from her boss, ASAC Thomas Gifford: she is to come back to Washington DC right away, as her talent and skills are needed on a high profile case.  Vail tries everything she can to stay on the Hernandez case, but Gifford won’t hear of it and soon she’s back in DC working on the new case, trying to keep focused.  Vail meets up with Hector DeSantos, a government operative who knows people in high places.  Eventually everything comes down to a big confrontation, as Vail wants back on the Hernandez case, and finally learns the truth about Robby.

Hernandez was working undercover on a DEA operation, investigating the drug cartel, and a notorious kingpin Carlos Cortez.  Vail soon realizes her efforts to find Hernandez may have jeopardized his cover, after showing a photo of Vail and Hernandez with Quantico in the background.  Once Vail finds out about Gifford’s involvement with Hernandez, she’s back on the case and working with DeSantos; she will stop at nothing to get him back alive.  After her son, he’s the most important person in her life.

Alan Jacobson goes deep into the world of the drug cartels and illegal drug trafficking across the border.  Readers learn astounding details on various ways drugs are smuggled through hollow corks and on the backs of wine labels.  Velocity has both a compelling action story – equal to Crush – but also a fascinating look into a world that many people know exists, but know very little about.

CLICK HERE to purchase your copy from Bookshop Santa Cruz and help support BookBanter.

Originally written on November 16, 2010 ©Alex C. Telander.

“So Cold the River” by Michael Koryta (Little, Brown, 2010)

From the author of Envy the Night, comes an original thriller with elements of the fantastic and supernatural set in a small American town where everything is not as it seems.

Eric Shaw is a documentary film maker who was starting to make it big – on set he would have the uncanny ability as director of photography to know what things we really like, as if through fantastic means – and then this determination for accuracy causes him to lose his cool and his growing career is instantaneously ended.  Now he spends his days making short films on people’s lives for funerals, where his strange ability allows him to see what a person was truly like.  He attends the viewings at each of the funerals, and at one is commissioned to create a documentary of her father-in-law, Campbell Bradford, who is 95 and a millionaire.

Shaw starts with an interview with the aging Bradford in the hospital, who seems practically comatose, but once he gets behind the lens he sees a different man, with an evil look and seemingly clear minded, but upon taking his eye of the lens, Bradford is just an unmoving form in the bed.  This is just the first mystery, as Shaw travels to Bradford’s hometown.  Bradford began his career in bottling a particular type of spring water that was purported to possess certain healing properties.  Shaw tried a sip of the hundred-year-old water and promptly threw up; but once he checks into his hotel, he notices the bottle becoming colder and colder, as frost begins to form on the outside.  Suffering a migraine, he tries the drink again, hoping for some healing; this time the water is icy and sweet, his headache going away immediately.  As Shaw investigates the man, he finds a sordid past that the town is doing everything it can to cover up; meanwhile his headaches continue to return and become worse, as he drinks more of the spring water.  He begins to have visions and flashes of past events which all have a bearing on the mystery that Campbell Bradford.  Shaw finds himself needing a way, a resolution, before he loses his mind completely.

Koryta turns a normal seeming town into a place with a sinister past, employing the mystical and fantastic to reveal the unusual story; while So Cold the River takes a while to get going, the story grows and becomes more compelling and complex, with an action-filled conclusion.

CLICK HERE to purchase your copy from Bookshop Santa Cruz and help support BookBanter.

Originally written on September 16 2010 ©Alex C. Telander.