Wow, what a journey!

Once again, F. Paul Wilson takes the reader on an incredible exciting journey.
And he sure knows just how to portray the Brotherhood so that you can not help but to despise them. ( )

In Panacea, F. Paul Wilson has written an entertaining thriller. The premise is, there is a cult, a subset of Catholics, real hardcore freaks, that adhere rigidly to what they consider to be God's will, and it has come across their radar, that there exists a panacea that will reset your body's health to maximum. This panacea, an ichor, in their words, is made by a priestess of the All-Mother cult. They cannot allow this, because it's not God's will, and as a result, they are determined to quash the makers of said panacea. Many members of this cult, known as 536, are Spooks--CIA. The protagonist is hired by a multi-billionaire, who is terminally ill, and has also heard of this panacea. He's determined to get hold of it, and he figures that doctor Laura Fanning, the protagonist, has a good chance of finding it for him. So he hires her, and provides her with a bodyguard. The bodyguard is an anomaly, whose history has been buried deep. She and her bodyguard begin their search in a Mayan village of Quintana Roo, but that's only the beginning. They travel to Israel, France, and Scotland, and at every stop they are threatened with danger to their lives. Non-stop action and thrills in this tale.

This book takes much suspension of belief, but I've never been one to let that stop me from enjoying a good story. Soon I'll be reading the next book in the series.

P.124
"I'm having meat today, agent. Meat."
Bradsher's voice rose an octave. "sir?"
Nelson almost laughed. He'd been a vegetarian for at least a decade now, believing it would increase his odds of living a long and healthy life. Well, fat lot of good that had done him.

P.156
"You do realize that mental institutions are full of people with ideas like the ones we just discussed, don't you?"
He nodded. "and that's a shame, isn't it. Because if you say you can't eat pork because the creator of the universe told you not to, fine. If you say there's a part of you no one can see that's immortal and will be reincarnated in a new body after you die, cool. If you say the Earth was created in 6 days back in 4004 BC, some school boards even consider making that part of the curriculum. If you--"
"okay you've made your point." ( )

I do love Wilson's Secret History of the World series. The ICE sequence is another one I'll have to read. First book was excellent. ( )

A devoted fan of the Repairman Jack series, I was excited to see a new book by FPW. A battle is underway to protect our destroy a cure for any sickness, essentially a full health reset as you might find in a video game. The 536 Brotherhood thinks it's devil spawned while its creators use it to heal the deserving. A terminally ill billionaire hires an industrious and motivated coroner (Dr. Laura Fanning) to find him a dose, and she needs the money for her sick daughter's safety. She is joined by a mysterious, but skilled bodyguard. Traipsing around the world, Laura is tenacious, battling the bad guys. Classic struggle between good and evil. Recommended. ( )

I'm glad to have Wilson writing more suspense novels that solid enjoyment. Kind of a silly statement since the vast majority of his work falls into that bucket. In my case, it was exactly what I needed and I'm very happy with the book.

Laura Fanning is a medical examiner who finds a weird connection between two corpses she has examined. Both bodies are in perfect condition other than being dead. She soon finds herself pulled into a search by a terminally ill billionaire to find the legendary panacea which will cure all ails. She is joined on her quest by Rick Hayden, an ex-Navy Seal who was also hired by the billionaire.

Going into this book, I knew that there were two more sequels in the The ICE Sequence books, so I wasn't exactly sure how it would end. And up to about two-thirds of the way through, I thought it was going to be a massive cliffhanger. Instead Wilson does his usual talented job and closes the novel up in a clean, respectable manner. Similar to the Repairman Jack series, you can tell further adventures are coming. However, at least at this point, there is no massive evil entity trying to destroy the world as there was in Repairman Jack. PANACEA is a Done In One. The continued continuity will be coming, I'm sure. There were a couple minor things that I wasn't crazy about in this novel. There were a couple characters that were too good to be true; they had all the right answers at the right time and guided our heroes along their quest. Yes, they were both explained later in the book but it still struck me as too convenient at the time. The story was a tad too formulaic also. Heroes travel to foreign country, defeat some trap and/or bad guys, find a clue that has them travel to yet another foreign country and do it all again. It was fine and worked but one more country would have been it! An excellent start for a new series by Wilson. I look forward to the future novels. ( )