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Gideon’s Sword is a departure from the paranormal work of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, and I’m not sure I like it as well. Oh, it’s still a good thriller, but you can’t bump into a bookshelf without knocking off a bunch of thrillers. That said, though, while I prefer their paranormal fair, I would still read another Gideon Crew thriller—simply because I just happen to love thrillers, too. It’ll just take some getting used to, coming from Preston and Child.
When Gideon Crew was a boy, he watched the police gun down his father because they thought him to be a traitor to his country. Years later, his mother confesses what really happened and begs Gideon to avenge his father’s death. Gideon pulls off his revenge with a meticulous plan that wows someone who’s watching in the shadows.
Caught in a treacherous web that started with his father’s vengeance, Crew goes after plans for a major new weapon, and he suddenly finds himself in more danger than he could have ever imagined. He can’t trust anyone, and an assassin dogs his every step. With no special training—just a remarkable ability to lie his way through any situation—he might come out of the mission alive. Maybe.
Gideon Crew is what you’d call an average guy who gets thrown into situations that most people could never handle. Plus, he’s extremely lucky, in the sense that he can extract himself from a volatile scenario without ending up dead. He’s also a resourceful character with a James Bond complex. In some ways, though, Gideon is a ho-hum character—neither good nor particularly bad—and, sometimes, he just seems to get lost in the crowd.
Gideon’s Sword smacks a little of fringe science, giving the plot a precision-sharp edge. The story winds up like a snowball let loose down a ski slope, and the thrills and suspense keep building the closer it rolls toward the bottom. Eventually, it explodes in a shower of pulse-pounding action, bringing it to a grade-A prime conclusion.
Though Gideon’s Sword disappointed me a little because it wasn’t Preston and Child’s usual fair, it’s sure to delight readers who are new to these authors, as well as those die-hard thrill-seekers (like me) who want cutting-edge suspense wrapped around a unique plot—because Gideon’s Sword has tons of that. So you might just want to check it out.
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