This time around the organization that recruited Gideon in Gideon's Sword enlist his help in assisting with a hostage negotiation. A former colleague of his, a nuclear scientist named Reed Chalker has gone delusional and taken a family hostage in their apartment. He's threatening to kill them all and claims that he himself was kidnapped and experimented on by government agents recently. When the standoff ends, it is quickly discovered that Chalker was suffering from radiation poisoning as a result of assembling a nuclear weapon somewhere in New York City.
As he tries to locate the nuclear weapon, Gideon learns that those behind it intend to use it in ten days somewhere in the United States.
The good news on this one is that I think it's a better book than Gideon's Sword. They were both fun, but Preston and Child seemed to gain a little better momentum with this one. Gideon and most of the other characters were better developed and the pace of the story rarely lets up.
The bad news is that the story loses plausibility at times. I'm okay with suspending my sense of reality when I read thrillers, but I still prefer and get more involved in reading a story when I feel like there's at least a remote chance that it could really happen.
Overall, it's a worthwhile book to read. I like that they're alternating publishing books in the Pendergast series and this one. I think it'll keep both of them more endearing to me for longer. Although if Gideon only has a year left to live, I don't know how many more books with him it's reasonable to expect.
★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
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