Murder - General & Miscellaneous, Thrillers, African American Music, Rap/Hip-Hop/Urban, Character Types - Fiction

Labyrinth

Name: Labyrinth
Author: Mark T. Sullivan
ISBN: 9781453268797

by Mark T. Sullivan

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Overview

In the ancient darkness of a mammoth cave, a cosmic secret lies buried
Working late in a deserted lab, a researcher named Gregor makes the discovery of the century. Within the dingy mottled surface of a stone named “moon rock 66095” lies unparalleled superconductive property—a power which, if harnessed correctly, could solve the world’s energy problem once and for all. But when his supervisor tries to take credit for the breakthrough, Gregor murders him and hides the rock safely inside Kentucky’s Labyrinth Cave. And his supervisor will not be the last man to die before Earth learns the secrets of moon rock 66095. When NASA organizes a team to retrieve the magnificent rock, world-class cavers Tom and Whitney Burke are the natural choices to lead the expedition. But Whitney is still shaken from a terrible caving accident, and lets her husband and daughter go without her. When tragedy strikes the expedition, however, she must overcome her fears in order to rescue her family, plunging into a cave so deep that she may never see daylight again.

Mark T. Sullivan (b. 1958) is an author of thrillers. Born in a Boston suburb, he joined the Peace Corp after college, traveling to West Africa to live with a tribe of Saharan nomads. Upon returning to the United States, he took a job at Reuters, beginning a decade-long career in journalism that would eventually lead to a job as an investigative reporter for the San Diego Tribune. Sullivan spent the winter of 1990 living with a group of skiers in Utah and Wyoming, and used the experience as the foundation for his first novel, The Fall Line (1994). In 1995 he published Hard News, a thriller based on his work as a reporter, and a year later he released The Purification Ceremony, which won the WH Smith Award for Best New Talent. His most recent work is Private Games (2012), which he co-authored with James Patterson. Sullivan lives with his family in Montana, where he skis, hunts, and practices martial arts.

About the Author, Mark T. Sullivan

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly

While earning enthusiastic reviews for his thrillers (The Purification Ceremony, etc.), Sullivan hasn't sold in really impressive numbers. His fourth novel could catapult him onto national bestseller lists, however, for not only is it expertly crafted, it's one of the most exciting yarns of this millennium. In an elaborate cave system in eastern Kentucky, a moon rock lies hidden. This rock has superconductivity, which, if harnessed, will solve the world's energy crises that's why Robert Gregor, the young scientist who discovered its properties three years ago, killed his mentor, who threatened to claim the discovery for himself; Gregor then secreted the rock in the cave before he was captured by police. Now it's 2007 and NASA, to train for a return to the moon to mine further superconductive moon rocks, is sponsoring a media-saturated expedition into the cave system, an expedition led by renowned caver Tom Burke and including his daughter, Cricket, 14, but not his wife, Whitney, an expert caver haunted by a recent foray into those caves that killed her companion. As the NASA expedition begins, Gregor, aided by a guard, escapes from prison with two tough cons and heads for the cave to retrieve the moon rock. Most of the novel's intense action takes place in the underground labyrinth, a fabulous otherworldly backdrop that Sullivan exploits brilliantly as he rotates his narration among Burke's party (soon captured by Gregor and his cohorts), a rescue team guided by the fearful Whitney and a third team of NASA scientists and U.S. military who plan to get the rock at any cost. The novel is honeycombed with plot twists and cliffhangers, giving it a slightly contrived, Saturday matinee feel (and it'll make a terrific movie; Scott Rudin has optioned rights), but Sullivan's sensitively constructed characters give it weight and depth. This is a great summer read. 4-city author tour. (Aug.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

A respected journalist and novelist, Sullivan returns with the story of a cave researcher who has sworn she will never return to the depths until her husband and daughter disappear on a caving expedition. A film is coming. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A clutch of action-movie set pieces in which cavers, scientists, escaped convicts, and the US Cavalry race after a moon rock hidden in a cavern. Already sold to Paramount (with Scott Rudin producing), Labyrinth begins with what will surely become its pretitle sequence: lunar astronauts discover a rock with awesome powers of superconductivity. Thirty-two years later, moon rock 66095 turns up at a Tennessee lab where scientists search for new sources of energy. Eager to reap the rewards the rock may bring, assistant Robert Gregor garrotes his supervisor when the latter insists on credit for discovering the rock's powers. Author Sullivan (Ghost Dance, 1999) then shifts scenes to the dysfunctional Burke family. Mother Whitney awakes again from a recurring nightmare about the drowning of a friend in a cave they'd been exploring. Traumatized, Whitney has withdrawn from husband Tom and daughter Cricket, and she refuses to join them on the Artemis Project, a NASA program that will train moon explorers in Tennessee's vast Labyrinth Cave. Fast cross-cuts follow. Led by Gregor (who raves like a mad scientist from Superman), a group of escaped convicts force Tom and Cricket to lead them into the cave, where, it seems, rock 66095 has been hidden. Local police entreat Whitney to take them into Labyrinth to nab the escapees as mounting floods stir her fears. Lightning rends the rock, displacing so much power it sets off an earthquake that, in turn, causes a nearby dam to burst. Cricket has to rappel down a cable to rescue Gregor, who dangles beside a roaring waterfall. The US president sends in the cavalry to retrieve the rock before it triggers another Hiroshima. Finally, everyone faces off, centercave, as a prison officer pulls a twist that's sure to bring raspberries from the peanut gallery. Smashing glass, thudding copter blades, rumbling boulders: Labyrinth has popcorn written all over it.