Tom Martin (1)

A fan of The Da Vinci Code, or any of the sub-genre it spawned, might pick this book up and think "hmm, this looks right up my alley." They'd be right, but they'd also be sadly disappointed, unless they happened to be fourteen years old. Because this book would be better served calling itself YA, or even Childrens.

Tom Martin is a pale imitation of Dan Brown, and possesses none of his story-writing skills. It's a half-decent idea, but the execution is clumsy. The prose is ham-fisted and the characters are two-dimensional and unconvincing (a college professor, world expert in his field, needs to have longitude and latitude explained to him? Really?)

If you're a fan of the Da Vinci Code sub-genre, do yourself a favour and skip this one, and check out something by Scott Mariani, James Rollins, or Steve Berry instead.… (meer)

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect from this book, the a blurb that reads somewhat like many of the Davinci Code/archaeology knock offs. However I was pleased to find within quite a compelling an interesting story to the point that I was unable to put it down until I had read it cover to cover, finishing the entire book in a single day.

The story begins with an unconscious unknown white man arriving at a monastery in Tibet, the Abbott at the monastery forsees the approach of evil and orders his deputy and all the monks to take the new arrival and flee. Shortly thereafter Chinese troops arrive and systemically destroy the monastery by roughly searching throughout the property.

A missing journalist over the border in nearby India has a replacement flown in who is arrested hours after arrival and accused of espionage, and the newspaper appears unwilling to look for answers regarding the missing journalist. As such the replacement takes it upon herself to seek answers and establish what has occurred to her predecessor.

It really was quite an excellent story invoking quite a bit of Tibetan mythology as well as highlighting the pretty crap conditions Tibetan people now find themselves in under the annexation of China.

Would recommend for people who enjoy adventure novels.… (meer)