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The Dark Hour (2012)

by Robin Burcell(Favorite Author)

3.76 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0062133470 (ISBN13: 9780062133472)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Harper

series

Sydney Fitzpatrick

review 1: Initially, in this book by Robin Burcell, it seems that the worst-case scenario in the storyline will be treachery of the marital and political kind. But that’s only the tip of a much more sinister iceberg, and the tale that unfolds touches on such divers themes as a world-wide terror conspiracy, bioweapons, automated submarine drones, a Vatican spy, and even the lost kingdom of Atlantis. Also initially, this reader needed a healthy suspension of disbelief, a reaction I often have to thrillers, I must admit. But it isn’t long before the author’s skill in writing well-drawn characters that the reader comes to care about, and creating a taut action-packed plot, had me turning pages faster and faster right up to the exciting, nerve-tingling denouement.In today’s wo... morerld, perhaps more than ever before, the threat of bioweapons is a very real one, and here the powers that be aren’t even sure who the culprits are, that enigma continuing through most of the novel. The action takes place in various parts of the world, including the Cayman Islands, Washington. D.C., Paris, Switzerland, Brazil, Amsterdam, and San Francisco. The protagonists are Sydney Fitzpatrick, female FBI Special Agent and forensic artist, and Zachary Griffin, covert government operative, still grieving for his wife, a CIA agent believed to have died in an explosion two years ago. After the murder of a U.S. Senator, and with evidence that there is much more involved, a whole alphabet of government agencies become involved, e.g., FBI, CIA, NSA, DIA, and the possibly fictional ATLAS (Alliance for Threat Level Assessment and Security) and FCI (Foreign Counterintelligence Squad), NCTC (National Counterterrorism Center) et al.This was only the second book by Ms. Burcell that I’ve read, but I can’t wait for the next one in the series, which, luckily enough, I have in my possession: “The Black List,” which came out in December, 2012, to which I greatly look forward. The book is, obviously, recommended.
review 2: The action never stops in this thriller by Robin Burcell. CIA agent Zach Griffin escapes across the rooftops of Amsterdam’s red light district, and special FBI agent Sydney Fitzpatrick narrowly escapes death when a vital witness is murdered. But with her skill as a forensic artist, Fitzpatrick has created a sketch that proves to be more important than she realized when the woman in the sketch proves to be someone who supposedly died two years previously, and the wife of Zach Griffin.Then a U.S. Senator is murdered as he is about to give a public speech. A mentally deranged suspect is soon arrested, but he conveniently commits suicide while in custody. Somehow the Senator’s murder is connected to a deadly virus that could kill thousands, and agents risk their lives to infiltrate a remote Network compound in the Brazilian jungle. Agents Fitzpatrick and Griffin both work against time to find the virus before it can be used.“The Dark Hour” contains a dizzying cast of characters that somehow manage to connect in a satisfying and unexpected conclusion. The characters are renegades and extreme risk-takers, but in the world of espionage, what else would they be? Along the way, the agents even have time to think of romance, which, not surprisingly, never seems to work out. Agents from the FBI, CIA, MI6, and ATLAS (a U.S. intelligence agency that works clandestinely outside and inside the country) all fight against the evil of “the Network.” And with the layers of intelligence agencies involved, as well as double agents and suspected double agents, it is often difficult to identify the bad guys, until they are dead.“The Dark Hour” is a wonderful, breath-taking novel of escape. No one could do what agents Fitzpatrick and Griffin do, or could they? This book was highly entertaining and takes the reader into the world of “maybe it could happen.”Reviewed by Kathleen Heady, author of “Lydia's Story” for Suspense Magazine less

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