Entertaining read, but suspend your reason.
A treasure hunter is found shot in a remote New Mexico area. With his dying breath he hands Tom Broadbent (from "The Codex") a notebook, asking him to give it to his daughter. The notebook contains nothing but numbers, so Tom consults with a monk at a nearby monastery (who just happens to be ex-CIA, and experienced in cryptology). He is able to decipher it as the resting place of an exceptional T. rex fossil.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the treasure hunter's killer who was after the notebook, but got to his victim just a tad too late, and thus only ended up with a weird rock, kidnaps Tom's wife Sally (who is, of course, a beauty as well as a fighter), in order to force Tom to give him the notebook. The killer is indebted to a renowned paleontologist who helped him get out of prison (yeah, it's totally believable how they made contact!), and who wants the fossil. Instead, all the killer brings him is the strange rock. Which is given to a technician (actually an overqualified, but underappreciated Ph.D.) who examines it and finds out some astonishing things about the fossil. It seems it has something in common with a vanished lunar rock sample, AND points to another explanation of the dinosaurs' demise 65 million years ago.
The book starts out suspenseful, but sags a bit midway through. I like stories that are at least somewhat plausible and don't rely too much on coincidences and luck. It's just amazing how everybody just happens to have the exact skills needed, and how they keep getting out of impossible situations. Crichton's Jurassic Park is better, because it's more plausible.
A treasure hunter is found shot in a remote New Mexico area. With his dying breath he hands Tom Broadbent (from "The Codex") a notebook, asking him to give it to his daughter. The notebook contains nothing but numbers, so Tom consults with a monk at a nearby monastery (who just happens to be ex-CIA, and experienced in cryptology). He is able to decipher it as the resting place of an exceptional T. rex fossil.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the treasure hunter's killer who was after the notebook, but got to his victim just a tad too late, and thus only ended up with a weird rock, kidnaps Tom's wife Sally (who is, of course, a beauty as well as a fighter), in order to force Tom to give him the notebook. The killer is indebted to a renowned paleontologist who helped him get out of prison (yeah, it's totally believable how they made contact!), and who wants the fossil. Instead, all the killer brings him is the strange rock. Which is given to a technician (actually an overqualified, but underappreciated Ph.D.) who examines it and finds out some astonishing things about the fossil. It seems it has something in common with a vanished lunar rock sample, AND points to another explanation of the dinosaurs' demise 65 million years ago.
The book starts out suspenseful, but sags a bit midway through. I like stories that are at least somewhat plausible and don't rely too much on coincidences and luck. It's just amazing how everybody just happens to have the exact skills needed, and how they keep getting out of impossible situations. Crichton's Jurassic Park is better, because it's more plausible.
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