“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.

“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.

Alcatraz’s Biggest Fan: An Interview with Alan Jacobson + BookBanter Site Update

Alan Jacobson is the bestselling author of the Karen Vail mysteries, beginning with The 7th Victim, Crush, Velocity, and most recently, Inmate 1577. He has spent a number of years researching with the FBI, especially in the Behavioral Analysis Unit. He was previously interviewed on BookBanter with the release of Crush. In this interview, Jacobson talks about how he writes one of his thriller, the intense amount of research Inmate 1577 required, and why he feels this research is important, and where he sees Karen Vail headed in his next novel. Read the interview . . .

The BookBanter website has gone through a bit of a facelift and change, all for its improvement.  I’ve switched to a two-column method, so that way you don’t feel like you’re being bombarded with material of all different varieties.  I’ve gone for simplification,  however all the information that used to be there is still on the site, just not on the homepage, but under various other pages.

From now on the homepage will feature the latest BookBanter interview, the latest Links Roundup, the Review of the Week, a BookBanter Blog post, a listing of the four latest interviews, the latest twelve book reviews, and the latest BookBanter columns.  This will all be on the left column and will be update daily and accordingly, with the latest update appearing at the very top.

In the right column you will be able to see upcoming interviews on BookBanter, currently listed for the rest of 2011.

Finally, I’ve added a quick-links bar at the bottom of the page to help in navigating around the site.

“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.

“Reckless” by Andrew Gross (William Morrow, 2010)

In Andrew Gross’ latest thriller, Reckless, he takes on the big issue of the failing economy and creates a fast-paced, action-packed plot that will leave you hanging on to ever word wondering how some dead bodies relate to the collapse of the US economy.

The book begins with the horrific murder of an entire family in an upper class idyllic town in Connecticut.  The police think the case solved with a robbery gone bad, but former NYPD lieutenant Ty Hauck, who is now an investigator for a global-securities firm, isn’t going to take this for an answer when he investigates the house.  The reason Hauck cares is because the woman who was murdered used to be an old girlfriend of his, someone he cared deeply about; one of the few people he shared his turbulent past with.  The murdered man was a chief equities trader for one of the largest investment banks.

As Hauck digs deeper, connecting the clues, he makes some startling discoveries that provide some answers to why the economy is going to hell.  Hauck’s problem is he isn’t a cop anymore, he works for an important firm that has a large stake in the economy that would very much like to know what he knows, as well as keep his nose out of where it doesn’t belong.  Hauck has a choice: keep his job and career, or do what’s right for his murdered former lover.

Andrew Gross has created a unique thriller in Reckless, talking about the economy without confusing or boring the reader.  He keeps the details clear and concise, as well the scenes interesting and action packed.  While this is a work of fiction, it is just as believable an explanation for the way the economy is going as what the experts are saying, plus it’s way more entertaining.

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

Originally written on June 28 2010 ©Alex C. Telander.

“The Lost Symbol” by Dan Brown (Doubleday, 2009)

Dan Brown begins his third book featuring the symbologist Robert Langdon with a trip on a private jet to our country’s capital.  Readers will think Langdon has done pretty well for himself to be traveling in this way, when it is revealed that he is being flown to Washington DC after receiving an urgent call from a colleague to perform a lecture at the National Statuary Hall at the Capitol.  There he finds an empty room with no indications of a lecture to be performed, but instead a recently severed hand with the fingers posed in a specific way, the index and thumb tattooed.

And so begins The Lost Symbol adventure, as Brown takes readers on a ride they won’t soon forget.  Langdon soon finds himself forcefully helping Inoue Sato, the head of the CIA’s Office of Security as they attempt to track down the owner of the severed hand, Langdon’s close friend Peter Solomon.  Brown has taken his time with this novel, doing the research and creating a fuller, more rounded story over The Da Vinci Code, keeping the reader more entranced with what’s going on, but also making sure to inform them about the subject and history of Freemasonry and how it all ties in with the Founding Fathers.

The solution to the overall mystery becomes a relatively obvious one for any skilled mystery reader, but the story is compelling, filled with details and supposed facts that will have readers wondering about the founding of this very country and who these people really were.

If you liked this review and are interested in purchasing this book, click here.

Originally written on November 24th, 2009 ©Alex C. Telander.