Dan Grant

Many thanks to Meryl Moss Media and Dan Grant for an ARC in exchange for an honest book review of Thirteen Across. My opinions are 100% my own and independent of receiving an advance copy.

Kate Morgan is on her way to a congressional hearing when a bomb goes off on her train. The bomb was not a coincidence and Kate quickly begins to realize that the bomber is after her. Philip Barnes wants Kate to pay for her sins. He has planted seven more bombs to go off unless Kate can stop him first. Barnes leaves clues in the form of puzzles.

In comes Will Shortz, puzzle maker extraordinaire, to help try and solve the clues before more people die. Captain Rachel Pratt, an Army Ranger, has been brought in as a liaison on the case when she loses her squad in another explosion. It turns out that Rachel is very much acquainted with Barnes. They used to be lovers. We then find out that Rachel and Philip were experimented on, genetically engineered to be super soldiers.

Seven more stops. Kate knows she is the target and doesn’t want any more innocent people to get hurt. Can she atone for her past sins? Rachel and Philip have been little more than lab rats. Will their past stay a secret. They know that only one of them will survive their next encounter. Can Shortz figure out the encrypted clues that Barnes is leaving? CIA, FBI, the military, human experiments and puzzles that take you from one landmark to another in Washington, D.C., this is a wild ride.

This story contains so many different elements, all of which I loved. You have the basic bad guy who is going to blow up stuff. You are trying to figure out his motivation with a countdown to the end. Add to it the mystery of what Kate did to make her a target. Next, you layer the crossword puzzles on top of that. Then, you have the uber soldier, human experiments, government secrets. Yes! But never did it feel like too many things going on, confusing or competing storylines. Everything was connected. Since I have been sick, maybe because of the medication, but lately I have a huge problem with names. So in the beginning, I did have to make sure I had everybody straight, but quickly that went away.

I love when a story contains real-life characters. The involvement of Will Shortz was brilliant. He is a puzzle master and is the editor and creator for the New York Times crossword. Even though it is a fictionalized version of himself, I am still a fan. I was invested in the mysteries and the characters. I had not read Dan Grant before, so I was unfamiliar with Kate’s backstory. It didn’t bother me at all, I never felt that I needed to go back and read it before understanding this story. It stood on its own. But I will go back and read because I am a fan now. I really enjoyed this one!… (meer)