Travis Simpkins: "The Lost Island" by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

Sunday, May 21, 2017

"The Lost Island" by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

The Lost Island

by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

Grand Central Publishing, 2014

Notes by Travis Simpkins

Part of their "Gideon Crew" series of novels, The Lost Island by Preston & Child in a fast paced and truly enveloping adventure that is hard to put down once begun. Tense action and unexpected turns keep the story interesting throughout it's 355 pages.

Master thief Gideon Crew is hired to steal a page from the priceless 9th Century illuminated manuscript, the Book of Kells, while it is on display at the Morgan Library. Once obtained, his employer reveals that a secret map is hidden beneath the page's decoration… a map that leads to an ancient cure-all that would be of invaluable benefit to all of humanity. Paired with a feisty partner, Amy, Gideon follows the map through treacherous seas to a remote island in the Caribbean where the two find that the fanciful events written about by Homer in The Odyssey may be based in fact.

To reveal more of the surprises contained within the plot would be a disservice to the book. The clever masterwork of these two authors illustrates the type of path more blockbuster mystery novels should take… that of an intelligent yet entertaining historically-themed thriller.