"The Wheel Of Darkness" Book Review

I am a very visual person, having said that, I will explain why I picked up this book.The cover. I look at book jackets and this one caught my eye. Charles Sutherland designed the cover and it is very rich in appearance. It was on a table of "featured books". Then I read the title and then the summary of the story, then a short intro of the authors(never heard of them)and decided to buy it and see what it held. This was in the front of the inside jacket, "A luxury oceanliner on its maiden voyage across the North Atlantic, awash in wealth and decandance...An ancient Tibetan box, its contents unknown, sealed with a terrifying warning...An FBI agent destined to confront what he fears the most---himself..." Aha, a mystery, right up my alley!

"The Wheel Of Darkness" first addition was written in August 2007 by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. It is published by Warner Books The story is 385 pages with "A Word From The Authors" in the very back, mostly discussing their other books(which are many)and their choices of timing of the introduction of their main characters.Together they have written 11 books at the printing of The Wheel Of Darkness. On their own, Douglas Preston has written 8 and Lincoln Child has written 6.

In the first 8 pages I went from, "oh boy, I don't think I made a good choice" to "now it is getting interesting!" After that I settled into what I thought was going to be a really great who-done-it. There were shady mysterious characters, clues, a murder, and travel and then while on board the oceanliner, not cruise ship by the way, that in it's self was educational...the difference being explained...who knew? Anyway, I digress, the story turned into a science fiction, ghosty thingie and I went "whoa"...they completely changed gears on me in "midocean" pardon the pun. Possession, insanity, smoke ghosts, gruesome murders..."hey have I accidently tuned into the syfy channel?"

Can I recommend this book? Well, for mystery readers who like Agatha Christy, James Patterson, S.Grafton, the Hellermans, P.Cornwell and so on, maybe not. These authors,Preston and Child are, after all, New York Times Best Selling Authors, but just not for me, not this time, I like a little more "believability". If you like syfy, then you will most likely enjoy yourself. I finished it only because I don't like not finishing something I start. I will give it this...it is rich in the descriptive, without buryng you under details and it is a great balance between conversation, description and action...A+ on all of that. You after all must be the judge, this is my opinion and my "take" based on my taste in reading material...and here, we both have to take note. They are after all, Best Selling Authors so someone (many someones apparently) thinks it's good. So, having said all that...I will still give it a thumbs up but a with an overall B - rating.

hard cover: suggested retail price $25.99
for more info you may go to http://www.prestonchild.com/