I bought this book because I wanted to read more works from this terrific duo. I fell in love with Aloysius X.L. Pendergast and, really, I was not ready to let go of the character when I finished the last book in his series.
So, I bought the next book giving the next character a chance to dominate my world the same way AXLP did. Well, he did not surpass my expectations (I still love AXLP) but he has a characteristic that’s very fascinating. He is more ‘human’ than Pendergast (who has weird and somewhat ‘out of this world’ skills).
The story introduces Gideon Crew, a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory who is also a former art thief/master-of-disguise. He learns from his mother that his mathematician father—who had developed a flawed encryption—had actually warned his boss about the flaws, only to be murdered. Gideon exacts revenge from his father’s murderer. As a result of this, he is recruited to be a freelance operative by an ultra-private security/engineering firm working for the Department of Homeland Security. His mission: to trace and retrieve plans for a mysterious super-weapon being brought to the United States of America by a Chinese scientist before the Chinese can recover them. (Wiki)
You’d expect a lot of action in this book (guns, dressing-up, murder, etc…). The parts where Gideon has to change characters were enthralling – it’ll take you a while to realize it was him (if you are a bit slow like me :p). There are a lot of bad guys but one was the main villain – Nodding Crane. The way he kills his adversaries suggests that he was ‘monstrous’. I imagined him to be like the guys from ‘See No Evil’, ‘Jason Goes to Hell’, ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’, etc – you know, monsters. No feelings, cannot talk and created to be a killing machine. However, he was mostly ‘human’ like Crew. I thought Gideon was facing an adversary that cannot be killed but I was wrong. Maybe there was something wrong with me understanding how he was introduced in the book.
The writing style was, as always, perfect. There are lots of gripping moments which made me finish the book in one sitting. I also approved of the way it ended – Crew did the right thing (in my opinion). I look forward to the next book to know what’s in store for Gideon’s character.
BOOK INFORMATION (Wiki)
Authors: Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Country: United States
Language: English
Series: Gideon Crew
Genre: Thriller, Science fiction
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Publication date: February 22, 2011
Media type: Print, e-book, audiobook
Pages: 342 pp.
ISBN: 978-0-446-56432-8
Preceded by: Fever Dream
Followed by: Gideon’s Corpse
GIDEON CREW SERIES
The Ice Limit (2000) Series Prequel
Gideon’s Sword (2011)
Gideon’s Corpse (2012)
The Lost Island (2014)
Beyond the Ice Limit (2016)
RATING
Thanks for dropping by. See you on my next review! ❤
