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.