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Overview
Photojournalist Mike Burke carried his camera into every war zone and hellhole on earth - and came back with the pictures (and battle scars) to prove it. He was flying high until, quite suddenly, he wasn’t. When Burke’s helicopter crashed and burned in Africa, he came away with his life but lost his heart to the beautiful woman who saved him. That’s when he decided it was time to stop dancing with the devil. But a wicked twist of fate puts an end to Burke’s dreams, leaving him adrift in Dublin with bittersweet memories . . . and no appetite for danger. But neither danger - nor the devil - is done with him yet.
An ocean away, Jack Wilson leaves prison burning for revenge. Like Mike Burke, Jack has had something taken from him. And he, too, dreams of starting life over. Only Jack’s dream is the rest of the world’s nightmare. Driven by his obsession with a Native American visionary, and guided by the secret notebooks of Nikola Tesla, the man who is said to have “invented the twentieth century,” Wilson dreams of the Apocalypse - and plans to make it happen.
As a terrifying worldwide chain reaction is set in motion, one thing stands between Jack Wilson and the time of reckoning he is calling forth: Mike Burke. With nothing left to lose, and little understanding of precisely whom and what he’s facing, Burke risks everything, one last time, in a battle of wits with an enemy who knows no fear . . . and shows no mercy.
Synopsis
From The Genesis Code to The Murder Artist, John Case has established himself as the master of unrelenting suspense. Now Case choreographs his most diabolically chilling novel to date, as the very fabric of civilization threatens to come apart in the hands of a brilliantly vengeful madman.
Photojournalist Mike Burke carried his camera into every war zone and hellhole on earth–and came back with the pictures (and battle scars) to prove it. He was flying high until, quite suddenly, he wasn’t. When Burke’s helicopter crashed and burned in Africa, he came away with his life but lost his heart to the beautiful woman who saved him. That’s when he decided it was time to stop dancing with the devil. But a wicked twist of fate puts an end to Burke’s dreams, leaving him adrift in Dublin with bittersweet memories . . . and no appetite for danger. But the devil isn’t done with him yet.
An ocean away, Jack Wilson leaves prison burning for revenge. Like Burke, Wilson has had something taken from him. And he, too, dreams of starting over. Only Wilson’s dream is the rest of the world’s nightmare. Driven by his obsession with a Native American visionary, and guided by the secret notebooks of Nikola Tesla, the man who is said to have “invented the twentieth century,” Wilson dreams of the Apocalypse–and plans to make it happen.
As a terrifying worldwide chain reaction is set in motion, Burke alone grasps the impending horror of Wilson’s malevolent plan. With nothing left to lose, Burke pursues an American terrorist–a twisted genius who journeys from a lawless weapons arsenal in the Transdneister to the diamond fields of the Congo . . . to an isolated Nevada ranch. It is here, in a climactic showdown, that a determined Mike Burke faces a nemesis who knows no fear.
John Case is the bestselling author of The Genesis Code, The First Horseman, The Syndrome, The Eighth Day, and The Murder Artist.
Publishers Weekly
Bestseller Case (The Genesis Code) offers a gripping contemporary thriller with an intriguing concept-that terrorists would seek to use the secrets of famed inventor Nikolai Tesla to develop a weapon to cripple the U.S. The prime plotter, Jack Wilson, who's recently released from prison, harbors a consuming hatred against America, stemming from both losing a patent idea to eminent domain and the country's oppression of his Native American ancestors. Allying himself with an al-Qaeda offshoot, Wilson assembles technology to duplicate what he believes was a harmonic resonance weapon used by the dead genius to cause the legendary Tunguska crater in Siberia in 1908. Since the U.S. intelligence services are riven by incompetence and wrangling, a businessman who may have helped Wilson to launder money winds up in charge of trying to foil Wilson's plot. High quality prose helps offset an improbable detour at the end leading to an unconvincing resolution. (Aug.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
The Barnes & Noble ReviewInternational terrorism, arcane scientific breakthroughs, Ayn Rand, and Native American mysticism collide in Ghost Dancer by John Case. When a brilliant scientist with a justifiable grudge against the United States uncovers the secrets to create a potential doomsday device from the notebooks of legendary Serbian inventor Nikola Tesla, his mission is crystal clear: "to stop the motor of the world." Jack Wilson has been an outsider from the day he was born. The orphaned offspring of a Caucasian and Native American, Jack was literally found on a Nevada doorstep. Named after the Northern Paiute spiritual leader who founded the Ghost Dance movement, Wilson grew up to be a virtuoso mathematician. But when he tried to patent a groundbreaking invention, the U.S. government not only claimed eminent domain but also set him up and threw him in jail for conspiracy to commit murder. Now free -- and allied with an al-Qaeda offshoot -- Wilson has traveled to Slovenia and, after much research, uncovered secrets from Tesla's notebooks to create a harmonic resonance device with enough power to destroy entire cities. (In 1908, Tesla allegedly tested the imperfect electromagnetic pulse beam with disastrous results: hundreds of square miles in Siberia obliterated.) Now, with an operational doomsday device in his hands, the vengeance-obsessed ex-con sets his sights on America. With the U.S. government too busy -- or too inept -- to properly monitor Wilson, the only person that can stop him is an Irish-American photojournalist who has no idea just how dangerous he is… Although the full history of the real Jack Wilson and his Ghost Dance movement isn't fully explored, fans of Native Americanfueled mysteries by authors like Tony Hillerman and James D. Doss should thoroughly enjoy Case's thriller. Paul Goat Allen