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Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child: The Wheel of Darkness

Author: Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

Title: The Wheel of Darkness

Source: Darmstadt Public Library (Stadtbibliothek Darmstadt)

Pages: 508 (paperback)

My Reading Time: 2 1/2 days

Language: Slightly advanced American English, salted with technical terms from seafaring and Buddhism

Rating: *** ( out of 5)

The very special FBI-Special Agent Alosius Pendergast is drawn into his eights investigation by taking a time out from his job and re-visiting a hidden Tibetan monastery. Here he once took his first lessons in Buddhism. This time, he is shown to a very secret part of the monastery, where some object – the Agozyen (meaning: Darkness) – was stored that arrived at the monastery a thousand years ago and has been hidden ever since.

It was brought there from India and its purpose is to “cleanse the earth entirely of its human burden”. Not even the monks were allowed to look at it – but now it has been stolen. So the monks ask Agent Pendergast to find the Agozyen for them and to bring it back into the monastery.

While this first part of the story which involves Buddhist culture and Tibetan monks is the strongest and most interesting, the rest – genre-wise located somewhere between crime scene investigation, “big passenger ship in danger” and X-files – is tied together with high dosed tension. So even when you think: “I’ve read that before” (which I did quite often) its very hard to stop reading.

The reader is also recompensed with some quite surprising developments and an unusual denouement in the end.

While its entertaining to read, it is (like the other books of the Pendergast series) by far not as good as the amazing Preston / Child thriller “Thunderhead”.

Lead me into all misfortune. Only by that path can I transform the negative into the positive.

cited “from an ancient prayer” in the book

 

 

Weitere Buchkritiken:

Buchkurzkritiken

Electrifrying: Jeffery Deaver – The Burning Wire

Lee Child: Nothing to loose

Patrick Cave: Das Saint Netzwerk

Sibylle Berg: Sex II

 

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Lee Child: Nothing to loose

Author: Lee Child

Title: Nothing to lose

 

Source: Darmstadt Public Library (Stadtbibliothek Darmstadt)

Pages: 531 (paperback)

Reading Time: 2 days

Language: US mainstream  (but some US cultural knowledge might help to fully enjoy the book)

Rating: ** ( out of 5)

A Thriller with an unusual theme: A former US Army soldier hikes from one town (“Hope”) to another (“Despair”) and gets thrown out. Not willing to take this easy, he sets out to discover, why he is unwelcome and discovers a dead body in the desert.

But instead of explaining anything, the body disapears again and everything turns even more mysterious.  Things remain like that until the very end and this keeps tension up – but not to the level of urgency (its possible to stop reading, but not easy). In the end the solution turns out in a way thats very unusual for a thriller – but thats good and still more believable then many mor conventional plots.

The author dares to include his views about current political issues (like the war in Irak, Pentagon politics or coporate responsibility) which really makes the story realistic.

More Info:

Random House

 

Weitere Buchkritiken:

Buchkurzkritiken

Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child:  Title: The Wheel of Darkness

Electrifrying: Jeffery Deaver – The Burning Wire

Patrick Cave: Das Saint Netzwerk

Sibylle Berg: Sex II

 

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