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Fiction, Mystery & Crime

The Eighth Day

by John Case
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Overview

"For Danny Cray, a struggling artist and part-time private investigator, the offer is too good to be true. A wealthy, enigmatic lawyer, Jude Belzer, would like to retain Danny for a little damage control. His client, an elusive billionaire, is the target of a vicious campaign by the Italian press that threatens to destroy his reputation. Belzer wants Danny to find out who is responsible and he will pay handsomely." Danny's only lead is the meager estate of a recently deceased professor of religious studies, a man so deeply terrified that he buried himself alive in the basement of an isolated farmhouse. Belzer swears that if Danny can get at the late professor's files, the conspiracy against his own reclusive client will unravel. It's the perfect assignment, in a way, and Danny can sure use the money. But the more he probes, the more apparent it becomes that nothing is what it seems. There is something he isn't being told. Something that's not quite right. Something dark, fast, and sinister that's coming at him from behind.

Synopsis

"And on the Seventh Day, He rested."
Genesis, 2: 2-3

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Genesis Code and The Syndrome, here is a spellbinding new thriller of international intrigue, religious prophecy, cutting-edge science, and unrelenting suspense.

Publishers Weekly

When starving but hopeful 26-year-old artist Danny Cray upgrades his part-time work as a private investigator to full-time, his blind acceptance of misinformation coupled with a readiness to plunge headfirst into situations unknown transform a charming na vet and spirit of spontaneity into fatal shortcomings that threaten to curtail a burgeoning career and endanger his life. In Case's new thriller (after The Syndrome), Cray embarks on escapades that are zesty and riveting, moving from the streets of Washington, D.C., to the Vatican Library to an entire city buried deep under eastern Turkey where a treasured religious object lies hidden. Ostensibly hired to protect the image of a famous businessman by discovering who is behind the smear campaign targeting his client, Cray quickly discovers that he has become involved in an imbroglio far more sinister than anything he expected; instead of the quick and simple high-profit, low-risk deal he envisioned, Danny is confronted with suspicious and terrifying deaths, dangerous technology and evil incarnate. Fast-paced and crammed with descriptions of experimental devices and potentially devastating scientific advances, the novel is unfortunately also saddled with repetitive language, some unrealistic stretches and improbable responses upon which the story line depends for further action. Still, the pieces fit nicely together and Case's fourth thriller is a satisfying and gripping read. (Dec.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

About the Author, John Case

John Case is the bestselling author of The Genesis Code, The First Horseman, and The Syndrome.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly

When starving but hopeful 26-year-old artist Danny Cray upgrades his part-time work as a private investigator to full-time, his blind acceptance of misinformation coupled with a readiness to plunge headfirst into situations unknown transform a charming na vet and spirit of spontaneity into fatal shortcomings that threaten to curtail a burgeoning career and endanger his life. In Case's new thriller (after The Syndrome), Cray embarks on escapades that are zesty and riveting, moving from the streets of Washington, D.C., to the Vatican Library to an entire city buried deep under eastern Turkey where a treasured religious object lies hidden. Ostensibly hired to protect the image of a famous businessman by discovering who is behind the smear campaign targeting his client, Cray quickly discovers that he has become involved in an imbroglio far more sinister than anything he expected; instead of the quick and simple high-profit, low-risk deal he envisioned, Danny is confronted with suspicious and terrifying deaths, dangerous technology and evil incarnate. Fast-paced and crammed with descriptions of experimental devices and potentially devastating scientific advances, the novel is unfortunately also saddled with repetitive language, some unrealistic stretches and improbable responses upon which the story line depends for further action. Still, the pieces fit nicely together and Case's fourth thriller is a satisfying and gripping read. (Dec.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

A quick, simple investigation for high profit lures Danny Cray, sculptor and freelance private investigator, into intrigue of international proportions. But lawyer Jude Becker turns out to be the billionaire client Zerevan Zebek, and Danny ends up running for his life-from the Vatican and Sienna, Italy, to Turkey, then Silicon Valley, Washington, DC, and Switzerland. Despite some improbable but not totally impossible plot twists, Danny's charm and innocence prove entertaining. Dick Hill's serviceable reading fills in the characters' personas in a believable way. Highly recommended for all audio collections.-Sandy Glover, West Linn P.L., OR Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Briskly paced thriller from Case (The Syndrome, 2001, etc.), with high-tech gadgetry, old-fashioned melodrama, and much ado about "gray goo." What's gray goo? It's the McGuffin, of course. Or, as one embattled scientist attempts to explain, "Well, it's the end of the world. At least." Flash back to young Danny Cray confronting a gift horse. Intuitively, he knows that this one should have its mouth inspected-thoroughly. And yet the money is so good. And so desperately needed. A part-time sculptor, part-time snooper who wants very much to be full-time the former, Danny has half a dozen wonderful uses for the fat fee he's being offered for a little elementary p.i. work. Mostly, it will require a few hours of computer jockeying, stuff he's a natural at. So he says yes to the insouciant Jude Belzer, who later turns out to be billionaire Zerevan Zebek, whom some-not without cause-believe to be the devil.. Still, at first, the guy and the gig truly did seem a no-sweat deal. Someone's been trashing a major client, lawyer Belzer informs Danny, and if the who and why of that could be nailed down, Belzer would take it from there. Danny does his part, is duly compensated, but is then asked to burrow a tiny bit deeper-for an add-on fee about which nothing at all is tiny. Charmed by his slick and elegant employer into further self delusion, Danny soon finds himself in Italy (Rome, Siena) on a heady whirl, first-class to his eyeteeth. Inevitably, though, there's an awakening, and, having discovered the dangerous nature of Belzer's megalomania, Danny has to run for his life, Belzer's ill-disposed "bulky boys" in hot pursuit. A standard come-to-realize, run-like-hell plot (consult your Collected AlfredHitchcock), but Case, who writes so very well, keeps it all at a merry boil.

Book Details

Published
September 1, 2004
Publisher
Random House Publishing Group
Pages
432
Format
Mass Market Paperback
ISBN
9780345433114

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