It never ceases to amaze me how many good writers are working in the thriller genre these days.
Since so many of the best authors work on a book-a-year pace, it can be hard to squeeze in a new writer when you want to read the latest novel by Lee Child, Daniel Silva, Sandra Brown, Christopher Reich, Lisa Scottoline, Joseph Finder, etc. etc.
But, boy am I glad I found the time to read “Altar of Eden,” the new James Rollins novel that William Morrow is publishing today.
The book reads like a blend of the real science of the Michael Crichton technothrillers with the larger-than-life organized evil of a vintage James Bond novel by Ian Fleming.
“Altar of Eden” opens in Iraq with the destruction of the zoo in Baghdad unleashing some horrible animal experiments gone awry that were funded by a private U.S. military contractor.
The scene shifts to New Orleans and the book’s wonderful protagonist, Lorna Polk, a veterinarian working in a lab specializing in saving endangered species.
A shipwreck unleashes one of the retrieved Baghdad experiments — a super Jaguar with much larger teeth and much more intelligence — and Lorna becomes part of the team assigned to capture and study the strange mutation.
Rollins orchestrates the suspense brilliantly and adds on a strong human drama when Lorna is forced to collaborate with a Border Patrol agent named Jack Menard with whom she shares a tragic personal history.
The tension and the scope of the horror keep growing as Rollins reveals more of the awful “Baghdad Project” and we learn that much of the experimenting is designed to create a race of super soldiers.
Lorna and Jack eventually find themselves trapped on a Caribbean island with evil madmen who make Dr. No look like Mary Poppins.
“Altar of Eden” is my first Rollins novel and it is good to know he has a backlist of 11 thrillers that I can start working my way through in 2010.
