Sunday, October 4, 2009

The Tomb of Hercules-Andy McDermott

The Tomb of Hercules
Andy McDermott
Bantam, Oct 27 2009, $7.99
ISBN: 9780553592948

After THE HUNT FOR ATLANTIS proved successful, the UN named archeologist Nina Wilde as the Director of Operations of the International Heritage Agency though she is not even thirty years ago. The mission of the IHA is to safeguard artifacts from looters. Former SAS operative Eddie Chase is her live-in boyfriend and personal protector. Terrorists attack the IHA research station above Atlantis killing everyone. Led by Joe Komosa they force Dr. Bill Raynes to download data onto a flash drive; before dying Raynes sees the last two entries are Wilde and Chase. Officialdom called it a horrible accident.

Three months later, Nina and Eddie hobnob with the rich and famous in New York although Eddie feels like a fish out of water even as they are on the harbor. They meet non-executive director of IHA, affluent Shanghai businessman Richard Yuen Xuan and his wife Lady Sophia. Eddie and Nina get into a nasty public argument and go their separate ways. Nina is determined to find THE TOMB OF HERCULES that she has been researching and Eddie as resolute goes to Singapore to rescue his former wife Sophia from her boorish husband. On separate continents someone tries to kill them. Soon the pair unites on the lam with a powerful adversary in pursuit who wants the Plato manuscript that Nina allegedly has found.

This adrenalin pumped story line is on speed as the plot is filled with action from the start and never takes a breather even for a cocktail on a yacht. Although over the top of the stratosphere make that mesosphere and the characters even the villain never developed beyond fighting and the lead couple making up, fans will have a difficult time putting down Andy McDermott’s epic thriller.

Harriet Klausner

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