Effective Engineering Solutions has been inexplicably shut down and the head of the company, Eli Glinn, has all but vanished. Fresh off a diagnosis that gives him only months to live, Gideon Crew is contacted by one of his coworkers at EES, Manuel Garza, who tells him the two have mere hours to collect their belongings before the office closes forever. After years of dedicated service and several high-risk missions, theirs seems like the most ignoble of terminations-until Gideon and Garza happen upon an incredible discovery. After centuries of silence, a code-breaking machine at EES has cracked the long-awaited translation of a centuries-old stone tablet, the Phaistos Disc, that dates back to an otherwise completely unknown, ancient civilization. The mysteries of the message itself hint at incredible treasures, and perhaps even a world-altering secret. No one remains at EES to take on this most remarkable mission but Gideon and Garza. The two agree to solve the mystery of the disc’s message and split the spoils: the perfect parting gift their employer doesn’t know he has given. What lies at the end of the trail may save Gideon’s life-or bring it to a sudden, shocking close. As Gideon and Garza soon discover, some missions are more dangerous than others. But as Gideon has proved again and again, there’s no such thing as too great a risk when you’re living on borrowed time.
Lincoln Child
Review – The Obsidian Chamber by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
A TRAGIC DISAPPEARANCE
After a harrowing, otherworldly confrontation on the shores of Exmouth, Massachussetts, Special Agent A.X.L. Pendergast is missing, presumed dead.
A SHOCKING RETURN
Sick with grief, Pendergast’s ward, Constance, retreats to her chambers beneath the family mansion at 891 Riverside Drive–only to be taken captive by a shadowy figure from the past.
AN INTERNATIONAL MANHUNT
Proctor, Pendergast’s longtime bodyguard, springs to action, chasing Constance’s kidnapper through cities, across oceans, and into wastelands unknown.
BUT IN A WORLD OF BLACK AND WHITE, NOTHING IS AS IT SEEMS
And by the time Proctor discovers the truth, a terrifying engine has stirred-and it may already be too late . . .
Audiobook Review – Beyond the Ice Limit by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Beyond the Ice Limit by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Gideon Crew #4
That thing is growing again. We must destroy it. The time to act is now…
With these words begins Gideon Crew’s latest, most dangerous, most high-stakes assignment yet. Failure will mean nothing short of the end of humankind on earth.
Five years ago, the mysterious and inscrutable head of Effective Engineering Solutions, Eli Glinn, led a mission to recover a gigantic meteorite–the largest ever discovered–from a remote island off the coast of South America. The mission ended in disaster when their ship, the Rolvaag, foundered in a vicious storm in the Antarctic waters and broke apart, sinking-along with its unique cargo-to the ocean floor. One hundred and eight crew members perished, and Eli Glinn was left paralyzed.
But this was not all. The tragedy revealed something truly terrifying: the meteorite they tried to retrieve was not, in fact, simply a rock. Instead, it was a complex organism from the deep reaches of space.
Now, that organism has implanted itself in the sea bed two miles below the surface-and it is growing. If it is not destroyed, the planet will be doomed. There is only one hope: for Glinn and his team to annihilate it, a task which requires Gideon’s expertise with nuclear weapons. But as Gideon and his colleagues soon discover, the “meteorite” has a mind of its own-and it has no intention of going quietly…
Narration – *** (3 stars)
Story – **** (4 stars)
Review – Crimson Shore by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
Crimson Shore by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
Pendergast #15
Goodreads description:
A secret chamber.
A mysterious shipwreck.
A murder in the desolate salt marshes.
A seemingly straightforward private case turns out to be much more complicated-and sinister-than Special Agent A.X.L. Pendergast ever could have anticipated.
Pendergast, together with his ward Constance Greene, travels to the quaint seaside village of Exmouth, Massachusetts, to investigate the theft of a priceless wine collection. But inside the wine cellar, they find something considerably more disturbing: a bricked-up niche that once held a crumbling skeleton.
Genre: Mystery / Thriller
My Rating: **** (4 of 5 stars)
Top Ten Tuesday – Favorite Books Read in 2015
Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Every Tuesday they post a new Top Ten list prompt. This week’s theme is Top Ten Best Books I Read In 2015. You’ll see some overlap with last week’s Top Ten Authors Discovered in 2015 list. It was very hard to narrow it down to 10!! I have read some great books this year. 🙂
Be sure to leave a link to your own post or a comment to let me know what some of your favorites were this year.
WAYRW – Crimson Shore by Lincoln and Child
What Are You Reading Wednesdays is a weekly meme hosted by It’s A Reading Thing. To participate, open the book you are currently reading to page 34 (or 34% in your ebook) and answer these three questions.
The Questions are:
1. What’s the name of your current read?
2. Go to page 34 in your book or 34% in your eBook and share a complete sentence. (or two!)
3. Would you like to live in the world that exists within your book? Why or why not?
Now for my answers this week…
1. Crimson Shore by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
Agent Pendergast #15 – thanks to Kristi over at the Hidden Staircase blog for letting me know this one was available on NetGalley! This is one of my all-time favorite series.
2. “Please take care to park within the lines,” said Constance to the young man she had recruited to drive the car the length of town. He’d been gawking at the car while she stood there, wondering what to do, and she had offered to let him drive it. He had leapt at the chance. Only once he was in the car had she noticed he smelled like fish.
3. This installment in the Pendergast series takes place in a small coastal town in Massachusetts. Except for the nasty police chief, I don’t think I would mind living there.
Now how about you? What are you reading this Wednesday? Be sure to leave a link to your own post if you’ve done one!
Top Ten Tuesdays – Ten Author Duos I’d Love to See Write a Book Together
Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Every Tuesday they post a new Top Ten list prompt. This week’s list is – Top Ten Author Duos You’d LOVE To See Write A Book Together. This should be fun… 🙂
Top Ten Authors I’ve Read The Most Books From
Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Every Tuesday they post a new Top Ten list prompt. This week’s list is Top Ten Authors I’ve Read The Most Books From. I’m sure these aren’t quite in the right order, but here they are. Let me know who your most read authors are, or leave a link back to your list in the comments!
Top 10 Tuesday – Top Ten Books I’ve Read So Far In 2015
Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Every Tuesday they post a new Top Ten list prompt. This week’s list is the Top Ten Books I’ve Read So Far In 2015.
This was probably the easiest Top Ten list for me to come up with! Check out my choices (in no particular order this week), and let me know what your favorites have been so far this year. Leave your list or a link to your own blog post in the comments below.
Note – all book descriptions from Goodreads
Review – The Forgotten Room by Lincoln Child
The Forgotten Room by Lincoln Child
Random House Audio – Narrated by Johnathan McClain
Genre : Thriller
Series : Dr Jeremy Logan #4
My Rating: *** (3 of 5 stars)
I am a big fan of both Lincoln Child and Douglas Preston, whether writing on their own or together as a team. I’m always excited when one of them has a new book published, so I was really looking forward to this one. I enjoyed the first three books in this series (LOVED #1 and #2), and I really wanted to love this book too. I have to admit that I was disappointed. It is still a good book, just not the great book that I was hoping for.
The Book's the Thing 