The Other Daughter

Lisa Gardner was one author that constantly appeared in B&N list of bestsellers. I was looking for a good mystery to read and her recent release “The Other Daughter” fit the bill.

“At SIX A.M. the Huntsville “Walls” unit went to full lockdown.

Outside the redbrick walls, protesters were already gathering for Texas’s first execution in thirteen years. Inhumane, picket signs read. Cruel and unusual. The “Texas Thunderbolt” should never have been brought out of retirement. The death penalty was capricious and irresponsible….

…Inside the Death House, where he’d been brought just the night before, Russell Lee Holmes settled his sparse frame more comfortably on the lone bunk in his cell and ignored them all.” And at the very time of his death, a 9 year old girl was found drugged at a Boston hospital, and later the little Jane Doe was adopted by a wealthy couple, Dr. Harper and Patricia Stokes.

Melanie Stokes has everything a girl could ever want – indulgent and loving parents, a protective older brother and a doting, rich god-father. Her life turns upside down when she encounters an old reporter who blackmails her claiming that she is the child of the murderer, Russell Lee Holmes. David Riggs, an FBI agent, is assigned to unearth Harper Stokes’ healthcare scandal. But he seems to have stumbled on more than just a scam…the mysterious circumstances leading to the death of the Stokeses biological daughter, Megan. Melanie and David race against time and assassins to uncover the dark secrets of the Stokes family. And aiding them is a mystery man who seems to know more about the past than the Stokeses themselves.

The story is akin to a chess board where all the characters become the pieces. The player is someone who is very close to the Stokeses. As the plot thickens, so does the player’s moves that orchestrate his pieces on a wild quest to unearth his identity. It does end in tragedy ofcourse but then what is a thriller without a tragedy of some sort.

I haven’t read mystery/thrillers for quite sometime. So this book came as a welcome break from the mainstream fiction that I seemed to have latched on to at present. The book at a high level is divided into 3 parts – overview of the Stokeses, Megan’s death investigation and then the climax. The only glitch that irked me a bit is the mysterious Megan. 3-4 Chapters into the book, Megan Stokes comes alive through memories of people who seem to collapse at the mere thought of her. And just when you start wondering if it’ll never end, the story rushes through to reach the climax. Its a rollercoaster ride of ruthless machinations, coldness and well revenge! A must read!

The Last Oracle

Managed to read this book in a day and half during my wedding vacation! The Last Oracle is yet another fast paced sci-fi historical thriller by James Rollins featuring the SIGMA team.

The story begins at the sanctum of the Oracle of Delphi where the Oracle smuggles a dark-haired autistic girl out of clutches of the Roman Church. Around the 1950s-60s, a wing of the Russian army invades a mysterious gypsy camp stealing a pair of autistic savant twins based on Nazi war documents.

Cut to the present scene where Gray Pierce is involved in a shoot out that kills a drifter close to the SIGMA headquarters. Before dying, the man places an ancient coin bearing the Delphi symbol in Gray’s hands. In a matters of hours, an autistic girl Sasha is reported missing at the Washington DC zoo by her Russian grandfather and an entire division of FBI is out searching for her. She however, turns up at the doorstep of SIGMA quarters with the gypsies in tow.

The dead man is identified as Dr. Polk who’s gone missing in Northern India and a little research bring SIGMA team in touch with Dr. Elizabeth Polk, Professor Polk’s daughter. Sasha guides SIGMA in their adventure with her ability to see into the future. Armed with her sketches and guidance from Elizabeth, the team retraces Dr. Polk’s route in India into the nuclear ruins of Chernobynsk in Russia which leads them to a group of autistic children who are being used to create a new world. Alongside, 3 unusual children, a chimp and a man with no memories race against time and radioactive countryside in a bid to stop one of the Russian ops.

Behind these nefarious ops is the Russian senator Nikolas Romanov who will stop at nothing to rule the world as the next messiah with the aid of the autistic savants. Connecting this chain of events is an ancient prophecy foretold by the last Oracle of Delphi. The events take a nasty turn however, when Sasha’s brother Pyotr, dies fulfilling the prophecy.The questions that still remain, one that’s sure to baffle you is did Pyotr really die and if so, who’s living in his body? And does Gray find his friend Monk, who is lost and presumed dead? What role does the autistic chimp play in this chaotic adventure?

The plotlines are parallel with Monk, Gray and Painter having equally tough tasks to accomplish. Its as if Rollins had decided to give equal priority to all 3 protagonists at the same time through this book. Realism is brought in through a almost perfect blend of the old world vs the new, heightened through an intricate web interwoven with ancient history and a medical condition that seems to have inspired some of the revolutionary advances in human history. I certainly enjoying reading about the Oracle of Delphi and about the Roma gypsies. Rollins’ thorough research had ensured that the book was complete with all the right facts. The mind-boggling fact however remains…how the heck does a soul switch happen?! A good book for private collection!

Angelology

The first book I’ve completed promptly in 2011, this historical mythological thriller takes the readers on a journey of wars, waged for centuries between the Nephilim and the Angelologists. Who are Angelologists you might ask?

“One of the original branches of theology, angelology is achieved in the person of the angelologist, whose expertise includes both the theoetical study of angelic systems and their prophetic execution through human history.”

I loved the beginning, for it was the beginning that defines the story. And the story begins thus…

Devil’s Throat Cavern, Rhodope Mountains, Bulgaria

Winter 1943

“The angelologists examined the body. It was intact, without decay, the skin as smooth and as white as parchment. The lifeless acquamarine eyes gazed heavenward. Pale curls fell against a high forehead and sculptural shoulders, forming a halo of golden hair. Even the robes – the cloth woven of a white shimmering metallic material that none of them could identify exactly – remained pristine, as if the creature had died in a hospital room in Paris and no a cavern deep below the earth….”

And the next chapter jolts to you the present day or rather a particular day in the year 1999.

Sister Evangeline, a Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration, knows only 2 worlds – that of Paris where she lived before the death of her mother, and of New York and the Rose Convent where she presently lived. Her world is turned upside down by a seemingly simple letter by Verlain, who is employed by an old man Percival Grigori. The letter uncovers long forgotten correpondence between Mother Innocenta and Abigail Rockerfeller which would’ve done well to remain hidden. They also mention of Celeste Clochett, who at that moment is living in the Convent. In this journey, Evangeline uncovers the secrets of her family especially that of her mother as well as the location of the lyre sparking off the ongoing war.

Percival Grigori is a Nephilim who is stricken by a deadly genetic disease that threatens to destroy him unless he finds the ultimate cure, the long last lyre of Orpheus. His family stops at nothing to restore their fame and power. Grigori also has a secret…he has been involved with a budding angelologist Gabrielle Velko.

Caught amidst the war between the Nephilim and the Angelologists is Verlain, whose quiet and uninteresting life is turned upside down with his encounter with the Grigoris and Evangeline. And what role does Evangeline’s elusive grand-mother, Gabrielle have in this war? The outcome of the war not only decides Evangeline’s fate but also that of humanity.

Sounds like a typical blurb? Well this book is well worth the read and a must-have in a personal collection. The characters aren’t introduced in a linear fashion but rather through a story within a story. The author Gabrielle Trussoni doesn’t waste time dwelling into the characters’ history nor does she emphasize on religion too much. Balance between the various themes – the mystery, history and religion is well maintained. The pace is well set from the beginning to the end with an unexpected twist at the end.

On the whole, worth reading and re-reading!

Black Order

Black Order is the 3rd installment in the Sigma Series by James Rollins. The book covers Gray Pierce and his team’s adventures as they race against time and a bunch of dangerous fanatics to find out a cure for a degenerative disease caused at Quantum levels.

1945 May 4, we see a scientist die trying to save a perfect blue eyed boy from the Germans. The boy is taken in by a Polish priest. Cut to the present day…

Gray Pierce is busy trailing a pair of twins at an auction in Copenhagen while his director Peter Crowe was last seen at a buddhist village in the himalayas where mysterious lights were noticed. A new character, Dr. Lisa Cummings gets embroiled in this latest adventure when she unknowingly volunteers to accompany a monk to the village.

The monks are dead…having suffered with a mysterious illness that strips them of their sanity. That and being chased by a hulky German just sums up the situation under which Lisa meets Crowe and the Germans – Anna and her brother Gunther who have access to a mysterious device. There is more to the mysterious lights it seems…for they are produced by the Bell, a quantum measuring device aka a zero point energy generator, with the potential to alter the process of evolution as well as create a new race of superhumans.

Enter an ancient, rich family with German roots in South Africa who knows more than what they reveal about the Bell and are determined to destroy the world with this deadly knowledge. The events occur simultaneously in 4 different places – South Africa, Nepal, Washington and Denmark. The plot throws abundant information on Nazi mysticism, Runes symbolising the Black Sun while playing around with the concepts of superhumans. A typical mishmash found in a scifi thriller.

Darwin’s theories have always been contested by modern science…but these very same theories combined with Planck’s Quantum Physics form the base for this plot.

The Five Greatest Warriors

I finally hunted down this book on Amazon since I was feeling too lazy to visit B&N and am I so happy that I finished this book. The 3rd and the final instalment in the Jack West Jr. series by Mathew Reilly is a quest to discover the secret lairs of the 5 greatest warriors that the Earth would’ve ever seen.

The story starts off with the cliffhanger from the prequel where we see Jack falling into an abyss but he overcomes death as usual. Jack’s team guided by Wizard discover that the only way to overcome the Dark Sun’s power is by activating an ancient geological machine at Earth’s core. The only way to activate this machine is to place 6 diamond-like pillars, all cleansed, atop the base of six gargantuan pyramids hidden across 6 different locations on Earth. The clues in this book are Rameses, Jesus, Genghis Khan and Napoleon. The fifth warrior is a mystery.

So Jack and his team…which is battered a lot during this instalment races against time and their enemies – the Carnivore, Wolf/ West Sr., Scimitar and Vulture, Chinese forces headed by Mao Gangli and the Japanese army to resurrect these pillars to save the chaotic world. Not only that but they travel across the globe covering places like Mongolia, Britain, Lundy Island, Easter Island, Indian Ocean, Japan, China, Eastern Russia, New Zealand and Israel/Jordan.

Alliances are made and broken, people are murdered and Jack receives one of the gifts of the pillar…Sight while Lily receives the ultimate gift unexpectedly. While the end is predictable…its how you reach there is what the mystery is about. For good measure…the romance between Jack and Zoe is also highligted which was brewing I suppose since 2nd instalment.

The characters evolved a lot since their adventure in the 6 Sacred Stones and every character is thrown in a new light in this adventure. I really don’t like Lily a lot since I kind of feel she’s a bit obnoxious from having so much knowledge but then that’s my perspective. On the whole its a great read for all those adventure, sci-fi fans out there.