Familiar superhero tropes, remarkably, do not impair a smart jet-set thriller of geopolitics, high-finance crimes, and...
An ace British crime-solver-turned-historian is drawn into deadly international intrigue with assassins, powerful bankers, members of Parliament, rogue military, and the CIA.
Tucker’s follow-up to An Essential Deception (2013) brings to the fore the earlier thriller’s considerably paranormal backstory elements. England is still recovering from tumult following the abduction of the prime minister, a case solved by supersleuth-historian Dr. Hanson Shaw, formerly of Scotland Yard. “Super” sleuth turns out to be quite literal. Three decades earlier, the child Hanson was accidentally exposed to an experiment using unknown, ancient technology. It took place after famed “international financier and luminary” Sheldon Wilde had rediscovered, in southern Greek mountain caves, an astonishing, still-functioning construction from prehistoric times. Resembling a pipe organ blended with a gothic cathedral, the cryptic relic, or “artefact,” collects wind energy to produce harmonics and frequencies so uncanny, humans who listen may evolve augmented intellect, acuity, charisma, ambition, extreme longevity, or they can die horribly or turn into psychopaths. Among those ancients who heard this transformative “clamorous blast from hell” in varying degrees: Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Julius Caesar, and Alexander the Great. Before walling up the location, Wilde and Hanson’s grandfather recorded the sound on magnetic tape for research back on home soil. Little 3-year-old Hanson, gadding about his family’s premises in Scotland, heard a full dose, which knocked the young lad unconscious. Adult Dr. Shaw still contends with crippling migraines and fainting spells, but he also benefits from visions, cosmic insights, and enhanced fighting skills. Now, with high-profile assassinations of prominent British military officers crossing his mind’s eye, Dr. Shaw must investigate. A subplot involves the ruthless rise of a Chinese banker named Napoleon; an economy-staggering, $30 trillion Asian-debt bubble; high treason among members of Parliament; an unethical London doctor getting rich by mishandling a medical miracle; and, in America, a slimy CIA director trying to keep his job by tempting the U.S. president with schemes to discover how the eminent financier and luminary Sheldon Wilde manages to stay active and vibrant—at age 115.
Crossing multiple time zones, the mystic adventure may put one in mind as much of Jeffrey Archer as Dan Brown, with its rarefied atmosphere of Europe’s ultra-posh and high-stakes financial/political games playing out in labyrinthine form among the world’s latter-day Olympus of wealthy and/or famous elites. Plot complications and time-trips revert back to the Renaissance and well before that—and yes, a unique art-appreciation lesson on a Raphael fresco weaves into the novel marvelously. Tucker ably juggles elaborate exposition on multiple stages and keeping all the plates spinning; prior reader association with An Essential Deception isn’t absolutely essential to enjoy the pages turning and the plot cogwheels meshing like an Archimedes device. Dialogue, characterizations, and overall epoch-crossing scope are rendered with intelligence, and the delving into classical antiquities and an “artefact” potentially shaping the destiny of humankind truly captivates the imagination rather than just being the umpteenth pulpy genre device about some kid suffering a lab mishap and turning into a reluctant superhero. Have no fear, this material exists on a higher level. The story wraps up most satisfyingly but clearly has room to add further episodes to ascend to a potential series pantheon.
Familiar superhero tropes, remarkably, do not impair a smart jet-set thriller of geopolitics, high-finance crimes, and murder.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Nov. 28, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
A standout in the series.
The sixth adventure of Harvard symbology professor Robert Langdon explores the mysteries of human consciousness, the demonic projects of the CIA, and the city of Prague.
“Ladies and gentlemen...we are about to experience a sea change in our understanding of how the brain works, the nature of consciousness, and in fact…the very nature of reality itself.” But first—Langdon’s in love! Brown’s devoted readers first met brilliant noetic scientist Katherine Solomon in The Lost Symbol (2009); she’s back as a serious girlfriend, engaging the committed bachelor in a way not seen before. The book opens with the pair in a luxurious suite at the Four Seasons in Prague. It’s the night after Katherine has delivered the lecture quoted above, setting the theme for the novel, which features a plethora of real-life cases and anomalies that seem to support the notion that human consciousness is not localized inside the human skull. Brown’s talent for assembling research is also evident in this novel’s alter ego as a guidebook to Prague, whose history and attractions are described in great and glowing detail. Whether you appreciate or skim past the innumerable info dumps on these and other topics (Jewish folklore fans—the Golem is in the house!), it goes without saying that concision is not a goal in the Dan Brown editing process. Speaking of editing, the nearly 700-page book is dedicated to Brown’s editor, who seems to appear as a character—to put it in the italicized form used for Brownian insight, Jason Kaufman must be Jonas Faukman! A major subplot involves the theft of Katherine’s manuscript from the secure servers of Penguin Random House; the delightful Faukman continues to spout witty wisecracks even when blindfolded and hogtied. There’s no shortage of action, derring-do, explosions, high-tech torture machines, attempted and successful murders, and opportunities for split-second, last-minute escapes; good thing Langdon, this aging symbology wonk, never misses swimming his morning laps. Readers who are not already dyed-in-the-wool Langdonites may find themselves echoing the prof’s own conclusion regarding the credibility of all this paranormal hoo-ha: At some point, skepticism itself becomes irrational.
A standout in the series.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9780385546898
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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