| 1. The
Hunters - Chris Kuzneski - My first book of the
new year. I hadn't read a Kuzneski book in a long while
so I thought it was about time. Financed by a mysterious
philanthropist, this elite team: a soldier (Jack Cobb),
an historian (Jasmine Park), a computer whiz (Hector
Garcia), a weapons expert (Josh McNutt) and a thief
(Sarah Ellis) was asked to locate a Romanian train
filled with treasures that disappeared in Russia during
World War 1. Fearing a Germany victory in the war, the
Romanian government signed a deal to guarantee the
safety of the country's most valuable artifacts until
after the war. In 1916 two treasure trains full of gold
and the most precious objects of the Romanian state -
painting, jewellery from the Royal family, ancient
Dacien artifacts were sent to the underground vaults in
the Kremlin only to be lost to the Romanian people
forever as Russia severed all diplomatic relations with
the country and scattered the treasure to it outlying
regions. With a haul valued at over 3.5 billion dollars,
everyone wanted to claim the vast treasure but its
location was a mystery. Cobb and his team systematically
studied all known information about the treasure and
using the most advanced technology formed a theory as to
how the treasure was transported (by train) and where
the treasure train might have headed. The gathered more
clues as they started their search and decided the
treasure had to be somewhere in the Carpathian mountains
in the autonomous zone between Romania, Poland and Czech
Republic. What the team didn't understand was there was
a cult called the Black Robes who were also hunting for
the treasure trove because their leader thought the body
of Rasputin was amongst the treasures. As Cobb's team
got near to the cave the treasure was stored in, hordes
of Black Robes ascended on them a fierce battle ensued.
With superior training, tech and weaponry Cobb's team
succeeded in winning the battle and finding the
treasure. After giving the local villagers some of the
treasure to rebuild after the battle, the remaining
treasure was smuggled across the world to the
philanthropist and the team members each got their
promised five million dollars for their efforts. This was a decent story though I wouldn't call it one of his best. |
| 2. Into The
Unknown - Kelsey Johnson - I heard an interview on
KRCC with this astrophysicist, Kelsey Johnson, talking
about the state of our knowledge of the universe and I
was fascinated. She had a way of explaining things that
made sense to me and that were on my level. Since they
were plugging her book in the interview I checked it out
of the library to read. Each chapter of the book
discusses another area of mystery: the Big Bang,
extraterrestrial life, dark matter and dark energy,
black holes, the nature of time, hidden dimensions, are
we living in a simulation, the laws of nature and is our
universe tuned for our existence. Each topic is riveting
though she goes overboard with little cutesy comments
that I could have done without. There were certain
discussions that blew my mind like, we could be living
inside a black hole, our existence could be a simulation
for so high school kid in some advanced society, that
there are over 11 billion Earth like planets in the
Milky Way alone, and so on. She continually points out
that we actually know very little about our universe,
how it came into existence, why it is fine tuned for us
and how might it end. Since she is a college professor,
she continually encourages her students to think outside
the box because that is the way new theories come into
existence that may add to our knowledge. Some of these
new theories may sound crazy now but they might be the
truth in the future. She also stresses that most people
don't ever think about our place in the universe and the
wonders it presents as they are so caught up in just
living. She also encourages people to turn off the TV
and go outside and just gaze at the stars and think
about our place in the universe. Overall an interesting book that I may read again in the future as I might understand things better as my knowledge grows. |
| 3. Walk The
Wire - David Baldacci - I found this book in a
little library kiosk in my neighborhood and after I
write this book report back it goes. This is a story
about two FBI agents who are assigned to go to London,
North Dakota for a reason unknown to them. They don't
understand why they have been sent to look into a murder
that should be handled by the local police. After they
arrive and start asking questions many other people are
killed or go missing. During their investigation they
are targeted multiple times by non American mercenaries
only to have another government agency which is never
identified step in to save their buts. In London there
are two families that own just about everything in town
and just as a business deal is reached for one family to
buy out the other, the heads of both families are
executed. Decker the head agent also becomes interested
in an Air Force radar installation outside of town that
seems to be redundant and not actually doing what they
are supposed to be doing, scanning the skies for
incoming missiles. Turns out that during the
investigation Decker determines that the radar facility
is actually being used as a prison like Gitmo which is
totally against the law. When this was reported to
higher ups in the FBI the facility was immediately taken
down and hushed up as it was being run by a foreign
country which happens to be an ally. It also turns out
that this facility was used previously by the Air Force
for developing chemical weapons and that a stash of
these weapons was buried next to the radar installation
instead of being destroyed as demanded by international
treaty. A foreign power from the middle east somehow
found out about the buried chemical weapons and was
attempting to tunnel into the weapons vault and release
the gas to poison all of the surrounding land which was
being used for fracking. Their motivation was to reduce
the amount of oil and natural gas the US could produce
so they could increase their exports to the US. In the
end this plot was discovered and thwarted which
explained some of the murders and disappearances but not
all. The other murders were caused by a jealous lesbian
lover so that she could move away with her partner
without any push back. This was not one of Baldacci's best efforts. |
| 4. Destroyer
Angel - Nevada Barr - Another of Barr's books
with ranger Anna Pigeon. Anna and her friends were in
Northern Minnesota for a few days of fun, rafting and
camping. After sunset Anna left her friends to do a
little star gazing on her own when she heard a
disturbance back at the campsite. By the time she walked
back to camp she saw a group of men holding her friends
at gun point. Not sure what to do or what was happening
Anna hid in the forest to try and figure out what was
going on. It turned out that these men were going to
kidnap the women, some of whom were very rich, to
extract a ransom. Anna heard the men talking while she
was hiding so she got the reason for the kidnapping. The
kidnappers were well informed and wondered where the
fifth woman was that was supposed to be with them and
they lied and said she didn't accompany them because she
had had a family emergency. The woman were hoping that
Anna could save them. So the kidnapper forced the women, including Heath a paraplegic, to march through the dense forest towards an area where a plane was going to land and take the women away somewhere. As the kidnappers and the women were moved, Anna followed closely and one by one she killed them. Eventually Anna killed all of the kidnappers and the women, though injured, were not killed and would eventually recover. And the best part of the story was that the man who organized the kidnapping thought he was going to get away with it but one of the women slipped Anamita mushrooms into his drink so he flew away thinking he was safe but was destined to die within a week or two. While I generally like Nevada Barr's writing this story was intense from start to finish and therefore somewhat uncomfortable. While Barr's stories typically involve danger and murder they have more of a backing story that dilutes the terror and makes it more palatable. Oh well. This won't stop me from reading more of her books which I generally like. |